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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
When you practice any kind of sacred ritual that feels like a prayer, when you remember that you are made in the image of God and God is a maker, then the very act of creation connects you to Christ, and journaling is an act of creation. We are in the second week of our series sacred practice. Last week, Jeremy introduced the series by talking about practices as invented and innovated or optional add ons. Jeremy said they may not be the sacraments, but they are bonus content for the aspiring Christians, and that is really helpful. I totally agree.
Speaker 1:And yet, I can honestly say I don't have a functioning faith without these add on sacred practices. From reading spiritual memoirs and theologians to experimenting with practices like prayer books and breath prayers, from learning to walk in a way so my mind can wander, to singing Patti Griffin songs to myself that have no word of a lie shaped me more than most professional Christians. I love I love sacred practices, and I need them. So last week, Jeremy talked about the practice of singing together. If you missed it, make sure to go back and listen.
Speaker 1:Today, I am going to talk about one of my favorite practices, sacred writing or journaling. But first, let us pray. Loving God. We slow ourselves down just a beat here. We feel our breath moving in and out of our lungs, our nostrils, our mouths.
Speaker 1:Maybe we roll our shoulders back and we feel our feet on the floor as this gesture of openness and trust. All of these sacred practices from breathing to singing to writing are our ordinary efforts to feel you, God, to sense you, to inquire after you. So may we be alert to wisdom so much bigger than ourselves, and may the beauty of God be upon us establishing the work of our hands. Amen. So today we'll talk about sacred writing or journaling.
Speaker 1:I promise even if you're not a writer or a journaler, there will be something here for you. If there isn't, you can send me a nasty email in writing. J k j k, just kind ones, please. Today, we will touch down in line a day, infinity prompt, sketchbooks, and oh, but I hate journaling. So I recently sorted through my old journals and then promptly shut them up in a box.
Speaker 1:I don't look at them often because they make me cringe. I've already told Jonathan when I die, burn those. Not because there's anything incriminating in my old journals. They just don't feel like me anymore. And still, I'm not ready to lose the record of what was going on inside of me for years.
Speaker 1:That's at the heart of this practice. It's the simple way we stay alert to our inner life. Put another way, Adele Calhoun says that journaling satisfies the desire to reflect on God's presence and activity in and through you. So these old journals, they did that for me, But I wanna start with the different kind. Journals I actually don't want to burn.
Speaker 1:The line a day or the five year memory journal. Now long before me, my grandma Joan Sackled kept a line a day diary for fifty years. And after her funeral, I have a fond memory sitting around the kitchen table at my aunt and uncles thumbing through her entries. And my uncles would call out a day and a year, and then we'd all go looking for what Joan had to say about it. On each page is one day, and there's space to write on that page for five years.
Speaker 1:So this is August 16 from 1978 to 1982. I won't read it all, but here are some of the highlights. At the top, she has this marginalia that says, Elvis died one year ago today, 1977. On 08/16/1978, she made pickles, baked bread, and got a letter from Faye, her daughter, who was traveling. On 08/16/1979, Glenn, my dad, cut the green field in the morning.
Speaker 1:There were more pickles and half pail of raspberries. Also, mister Dieffenbaker died. On 08/16/1980, it rained slowly all day. No silage was made. On 08/16/1981, Linda and the girls, that's my mom, me, and my sister, went to mass with her.
Speaker 1:Then we went to the neighbors for coffee. On 08/16/1982, uncle Philip Conan died. Now you could argue that these are the quotidian details of one Saskatchewan woman's life. Unremarkable, except by her and the constellation of people around her. But sitting with a few entries this week, I couldn't help but see that every note, every chore, every death held what Kathleen Norris calls the sanctity of the everyday and what I would call a life witnessed by oneself.
Speaker 1:I myself have kept a line a day diary for the past fourteen years, and it's actually not because I'm so good of a granddaughter. I actually didn't even mean to do it. But I got one as a gift in 2012, the year I was ordained and had a total hip replacement. But more than recording big events, a line a day diary allows me to be the primary witness to my own life. That has been so important to me in some of the loneliest seasons of the past fourteen years.
Speaker 1:But cooler, though, are these byproducts from this practice. What I didn't expect to find was the synchronicity of patterns. Get this. On August year, a friend mentioned seeing the Perseid meteor shower, and on that same day, August 2017, Jonathan and I drove over to the city to do the same. And you might think, who cares?
Speaker 1:I care. I loved knowing that. What I didn't expect to find through this practice was how clear it would be to me that noting ordinary daily happenings like what I work on, who I see, where I travel would reveal my true values. It's like my life is speaking before I even put it into words. And what I didn't expect to find was how my memory will shift something.
Speaker 1:And then when I go back and look, well, I didn't have the facts straight after all. And so with careful attention, I come back to what is true. The New Testament book of Hebrews is a letter meant to sound like a sermon. It's written to second generation Christians who are trying to hold onto faith in Jesus. So the writer sets up his plea for faith with arguments from the lesser to the greater.
Speaker 1:Like if angels could carry the 10 commandments, how much greater is the message of the Son through whom God created the world? Then the writer says, we must pay the most careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. This little verse is so easy to miss. Only that's the point. Don't let what's important slip away.
Speaker 1:And the connotation here is a ring just slipping off a finger or a fact that slips from your mind. So to make it stand out, the writer uses two Greek verbs alight with alliteration. Prosecco, meaning pay attention. Parareo, means drift away. In these words, they offer this nautical metaphor present in Hebrews when the writer says that Jesus is the hope that anchors the soul, but they also have a moral quality.
Speaker 1:Like, it is better to pay attention than to be inattentive. And I'd agree. But what were they supposed to pay attention to? The answer is back at the start. It's the way that God speaks to us through the sun.
Speaker 1:It is my experience with journaling that God still speaks through the language of the sun, whom New Testament writers call the word. When we find language to pay close attention to our lives? How do you pay attention to your life? Not just the Instagram posts, but the sweet delights and the tugs of grief that no one else can see. A line a day anchors me to mine, but it doesn't have to be that for you.
Speaker 1:There are also bullet journals, of which I also keep, gratitude lists, detailed calendars, journal apps, and even the photos that pop up as memories on your phone that say one year ago today. Paying attention is a practice where you will find the patterns, the values, the memories of your life have something sacred to show you. A spirit will meet you there. Now let's turn to another form of journaling, one that goes deeper. There is a form of journaling that can go with you in tough times.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the science of that for a moment. Doctor James Pennebaker laid the foundation for what he called expressive writing, and his research has been replicated and expanded on for the last thirty years. In sum, Pennebaker wrote that or found that writing for as little as twenty minutes a day, four days in a row, has a measurable effect on your mood. Now it's true. Be warned.
Speaker 1:Immediately after you write about something painful or traumatic, you will likely feel that sadness for a stretch. But the long term effects are far more positive. We're talking reduced depressive symptoms, healthier immune systems, less pain in our bodies. And numerous studies support the idea that writing about emotional experiences can improve mental and physical health. Now it is not a panacea.
Speaker 1:You shouldn't stop taking your SSRIs or going to your therapy appointments with dear diary entries. But journaling is a cheap and powerful tool at your disposal. What helps is identifying, labeling, and integrating negative emotions into the broader context of your life. So now you say, great, Bobby. How do I do it?
Speaker 1:Well, of course, you could start with twenty minutes a day, four times a week, but there is a prompt that I want to marry with this research that has been even more helpful to me. So helpful, it is a pinned note on my phone called The Infinity Prompt from The Power of Writing It Down by the writer Alison Fallon. I recommend this book for creative writing, finding your voice, but also journaling, especially the deep kind, like when you're struggling with a conflict or uncertainty or loss. Are you ready? Put your seat belts on.
Speaker 1:Here it is. This is how it works. After you identify a situation that has a bit of a charge for you, you're meant to write through these five parts. They're not difficult one at a time. First, you write the facts.
Speaker 1:You write about the bare facts. Who, what, when, where. That is it. Objectively describe what happened without your commentary. But the second is the story.
Speaker 1:What is the story that you tell yourself about the facts? This is your interpretation. And already, you're in a great place differentiating between the facts and the story you tell yourself about the facts. Third, the feelings. Find words for how you feel.
Speaker 1:This is very hard for me. So the other note I have pinned on my phone is just a list of feelings. I scan it and find the feeling that seems right. Fourth, the actions. What did you do to engage or disengage with how you felt?
Speaker 1:Fallon says, we all have these elaborate defenses that keep us from feeling unpleasant emotions, so get self aware about those defenses. Fifth and final stop is the results. What was the outcome of your chosen action? Did it help or harm, or was it just not that useful? By the way, you might be wondering why is it called the infinity prompt.
Speaker 1:It's because every time I use it, it delivers. Every time in, like, under twenty minutes. And if you didn't catch all that because you weren't writing it down, you can send me an email, and I will share that note with you. But honestly, it doesn't matter if you use this prompt or not. Any form of expressive writing will do.
Speaker 1:But if it's hard to get started, you can try a prompt. Facts, story, feelings, actions, result. F s f a r. You are welcome to it. Now let's go back to Hebrews.
Speaker 1:One of the things I like about Hebrews for a conversation about sacred practice is that it is a discipleship text. And in the world it comes from, a godly life is full of rituals, like full of them. In Hebrews, there's talk about sacrifices, burnt offerings, and sin offerings, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. There are priests going about their business in the holy of holies. There's priests wearing priestly garments, a priest meditating and mediating on behalf of the people.
Speaker 1:There are ritual washings, reading the law to ratify the covenant and the sacred objects of the temple and the tabernacle. And all of it all of it played a part in the history of faith. But now, the writer says, we actually have a new priest, Jesus, and new sacrifice, Jesus', a new temple, that's right, Jesus. And so our rituals are changing. Therefore, holy brothers and sisters who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.
Speaker 1:He was faithful to the one who appointed him just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses just as the builder of a house is greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Now the verb for fix your thoughts can mean to contemplate, to physically look at, to behold. Do you have to wonder?
Speaker 1:For these second generation Christians, how were they supposed to see Jesus after he was gone? Well, that's about looking deeper at what is already in front of you. Now I have one more example of journaling from my life, and this one is new for me. No judgments, please. Earlier this year, my sister-in-law suggested that I try watercolor painting.
Speaker 1:I'd never thought about doing it. I don't even draw, but I humored her and was like, sure. Fine. Okay. Let's try it.
Speaker 1:Long story short, I loved it. Since trying it, I have taken some online classes. I'm working my way through 31 sketchbook prompts. This summer though, I got stuck on a prompt where I was supposed to paint my mood. Ugh.
Speaker 1:Feelings. Right? LePrompt suggested doing a self portrait. And as you sketch yourself, you will see, you will behold your mood. You'll see the truth right in front of you.
Speaker 1:I'm trusting you here. So I did not actually No. No. Don't do that. I did not actually know how I felt before I started.
Speaker 1:But as I stared back at myself in that sketchbook, there it was. I felt content. The writer of Hebrews says, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. So Hebrews shifts rituals of the temple to the Jesus community, Priests to the priesthood of all believers. And now Jesus makes it possible for all of us, every single one of us to access the life of God.
Speaker 1:And so if you don't need a priest but you are a priest then you are meant to make meaning with what God has given you in your life when you slow down, when you practice any kind of sacred ritual that feels like a prayer, when you remember that you are made in the image of God and God is a maker, then the very act of creation connects you to Christ and journaling is an act of creation. You can write your feelings down on the back of a coop receipt, make a list of pros and cons on your phone, sit down in front of a mirror and actually sketch your face. You can use a facts and a feelings prompt, summarize your day in a line or two, write a list of 10 things that make you so happy you could burst. You can record your big, boring, beautiful life every day for fourteen or fifty years. You can write a letter to a lover that you aren't finished loving.
Speaker 1:You can let stream of consciousness flow from your pen until there are no words left to write. Get close to what Jesus did when he was here. Work with the elements that you are given. Your body, your story, your spirit until would you look at that? These elements reveal God as the source of everything.
Speaker 1:There is so much meaning hiding out in your life waiting to be discovered. Try and write about that. But what if you have tried and you still think I kinda hate it? I get that. Journaling has changed a lot for me over the years.
Speaker 1:So I wanna argue for one more reason why journaling might be a sacred practice that you turn to from time to time. So I recently read a memoir of Geraldine Brooks called Memorial Days, where she writes about losing her husband, the journalist and writer, Tony Horwitz, at the age of 60. And as a part of her grief, Geraldine reads Tony's journals, and she writes about seeing a version of him on those pages that she actually didn't see in their life together. She saw an insecure Tony, a doubting Tony, a despondent Tony. And then she reflects, these journals, in general, are not happy reading.
Speaker 1:My sunny, funny lover is rarely found in these pages. She says, I begin to see that he turned to his journals when he was not that guy. That guy didn't need them. Here's the kicker of Hebrews. Sacred practice is not even for the self.
Speaker 1:It's for others. Later in chapter three, the writer says, see to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful heart, but encourage one another daily as long as it is called today. When you journal, you check your heart and you dismantle what gets in the way of a life modeled on Jesus. You do all of that for a greater good. What if journaling isn't really for you after all?
Speaker 1:I mean, sure, you'll get a lot out of it. But maybe even more than that is the fact that a journal can be a place where you can get out the bad parts so that you can live the better parts with the ones that you love. Let us pray. Loving God, as we think about this simple and layered practice of writing down the details of our lives, might we see our hands, our memories, even these child learned skills as ways that you are still shaping and healing us. Mostly, I pray for love, that we will find ways to love ourselves well so we can turn and love each other well.
Speaker 1:May we be brave as we meet ourselves on pages or screens on our phones. Spirit of the living God, present with us now. Enter the places of our fear and our longing and heal us of all that harms us. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Speaker 2:Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.