Writing

Judges 2:7; 10 – 11, is a passage to which I return time after time to encourage people to write.  To journal on what the Lord is doing in their lives.  There are at least two reasons for this the first I wrote about last December, as we are believers we are prone to forget, quickly, what God has done for us.  Journaling helps us remember.

The second reason is that writing helps us to clarify our thinking.  I will admit that it is hard.  It is hard to write down what you are thinking in a way that will anticipate all of the questions that someone may ask you.  It is hard to know if what you are writing is any good.  But you are not writing for anyone else.  You are writing to slow down and think thoroughly through the issues about which you are writing.  Most of us do not think well.  We have been conditioned by the consumer culture to be told what to believe, what to think.  For the most part we have abandoned the discipline of thinking, reasoning, evaluating what we have been told.  It is critical that we regain it.  One of the major reasons we are facing most of the challenges we are facing as a culture today both in our cultures and our churches is that people have accepted what they have been told uncritically, unthinking.  Writing out your response to what is going on in your culture and in your study of the Word, will help you to think clearly through these issues.  At the very least the process will uncover holes in your understanding and indicate where you need more information or study.

John Piper talks about the importance of this discipline in his message on David Brainerd.  I highly recommend you investing the 40 minutes or so that it will take you to listen to this.  It will be well worth your time.