What would have happened if the sacred writers had not completed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and moved beyond inward hearing to outward writing? There would have been no Bible---only traditions handed down by word of mouth, along with all the impressions of words to ear alone, instead of words to eye. The Bible needed to be written.
However, in addition to preserving the sacred words, the Lord uses the process of writing as a way to access the soul of the sacred writer. The open space of papyrus or page becomes the arena within which the Word and the writer through alphabets and languages release the creative Word. A journal is a day for this to continue.
A journal originally meant a book of worship for the day hours. It comes from the Latin diurnalis, the word "day" being related to the first syllable. Later the word came to mean the daily happenings that one records.
From the pages of a journal, the personal Word of God can well up from their point of origin---the deepest recesses of the spirit. The process determines the outcome. There are some things that will not be understood without the struggle---as ice dancers---with the tugging, pulling and yielding that takes place in writing.
As you move through the hours of the day and interplay with events that sometimes seek to intrude upon you peace, take time---even mere minutes---to stop, pause, and write some phrases that will unleash the Spirit. The Lord is actively using what is happening to you along with the Word for the day as a sacred counterpoint to show you God's will, to unfold God's love. God needs your attentive listening, as well as your obedient fingers in writing to give you a more complete expression of God's purposes in your life. Writing lifts thoughts, feelings, and images that would otherwise be lost in the darkness of the sea inside us.
