Practical QTSample

 #16 It doesn't harm to journal a bit...

Socrates said: “an unconsidered life is not worth living”.

In a movie I watched as a teen, (I think it was called Blue Thunder) the main character used his ability to judge elapsed time to check his combat reflexes.  When one of his critics quipped that “he uses a stopwatch to check his sanity,” someone else replied “And what do you use?  A dipstick?”

Scripture calls us to meditate on life in the light of God's Truth and His Word.  In Romans 12:3 Paul calls us to have a sober estimate of ourselves.  Our daily QT is a great opportunity to take a moment to think through where we are.

After we've quieted our soul, praised God, and read His Word, we should reflect.

The psalmist (who may well be suffering from a bout of depression) has a little dialogue with his soul.  (It's quite helpful to consider my soul as something separate from the rush and helter-skelter reactive-ness that tries to usurp who I am and need to be).

When my contemplation of God and His Word speaks to my soul in one way or another, I need to maximise that moment.  I need to make sure that I don't suppress the learning that should be taking place.

One of the ways to do that is to write.  Writing slows me down and helps me think clearly, and so I have a journal.  But I don't use my journal as “dear Diary...”  I don't write in it every time and I'm not recording my memoirs.  I write when something bubbles to the surface in me: fear, doubt, anger, loneliness, discouragement, and I write when God challenges me.

So I'll write something like: “Really challenged reading about Jesus praying 'Father forgive them...' will have to try and forgive Joe Bloggs...”  Other times I'll write about a prayer answered, or a profound truth that I want to carry in my heart.

The danger is that this can become ego-centric: all about me.  This is where the Psalmist talking to “his soul” is helpful — it's a discussion that takes place about my-life-in-the-third-person in the context of God's Greatness and His Word.