Category Archives: Journals

2012 Top Ten Posts

Posted on by
Reply

toptenawHere are the top ten most read posts of 2012.

10. Guest Post: Park View Community Mission.  Lee Ann Powers, an member of Christ Community United Methodist Church in Lynchburg wrote about the mission of Park View Community Mission, a Lynchburg District mission. Lee Ann writes passionately about this ministry and links this work to the work of the early Christians as evident in Acts. Lee Ann is a student of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and is on the deacon track.

9. Waiting is Hard.  This was my only Advent post for 2011, but it was viewed a bunch of times this year. I write about not passively waiting, but waiting while actively being about kingdom work. The disciples felt asleep, are we falling asleep as well?

8. Sex in Heaven?  The title, I’m sure, is what made this one get so many views. A friend shared a story about what a question raised in a Bible study with older adults. I thought it was worth sharing.

7. Religious Respect? I wrote this after a news story came out that US military personnel burned copies of the Koran. Why do we disrespect one religion by using another? This post also received the most comments in 2012.

6. Wedding Planning: the invitation. I’m actually surprised there weren’t more wedding planning posts in this list. But a lot of them were posted in 2011 and seen then. Megan and I were married in April of 2012, and a lot of people were keeping up with our plans via our blog.

5. Looking through a . . . peephole? This was a quote shared with me by one of my former youth group students. I came across it randomly one day.

4. Team Snoopy.  I have been writing for Hollywood Jesus.com, and one of the perks is I am sent DVDs to review for the site. This was one of those reviews. In the review I draw a connection between Charlie Brown and Habakkuk and the lessons we can learn from both.

3. Faith Fumes. This was a devotion I had written in early 2012. In it, I compare our spiritual life running on fumes, like we tend to do with our gas tanks. In fact, I was doing that this morning. I share the General Rules from John Wesley that help us keep our tank full.

2. Empty Pages. I wrote this post back in May of 2011. I found some old journals I had kept one day and after looking through them, I reflected on the empty (and not so empty) pages in those journals. Journal writing has been an important element of my spirituality.

1. How to Care for Introverts. I stumbled upon this graphic on Facebook. It is so true! As an introvert, I agree with each of these 12 points. Someone has randomly posted this on Pintrist, so I welcome all those who find me through Pintrist.

Lost Journal

Posted on by
Reply

Sometime last week during LebCamp, my journal went missing.  I  haven’t been able to find it.  I’ve looked everywhere in my office, around the church, in the church van, at home, in my car.  No journal to be found.

I’ve been hoping that it would be like one of those lost and found stories in Luke’s gospel.  Like the lost coin, I’d find my journal and rejoice!  Or like the lost sheep, I’d find my journal and bring it back to the journal fold.  Or like the lost son, I’d find my journal and throw a party.  But, alas, no journal.

And to be honest, I’ve been a little lost this week without that journal.  I do have a nice, clean, fresh, never-been-written-in leather journal, but its not the same.  That journal with its worn cover and pages falling out has been through some incredible journeys with me over the last year or so.  There were thoughts about my recent doctor visits and tests that were run on my heart.  There were thoughts about life, dad, and films.  There were outlines and scribbles about new writing projects.  And, it’s all gone.

But, I’m hopeful that it’ll turn it up and those lost thoughts will be found.  And you never know, maybe I’ll throw a party.

Empty pages

Posted on by
2

Tonight I pulled out my old journals.  Some are hard back.  Some are leather.  Some have spiral bindings, others do not.  Some have crazy designs, while others are just solid colors.  The journals I have only date back to about 2002/2003.  The opening pages in the oldest journal aren’t dated.

These journals are where I collect most of my random thoughts. And sometimes the pages look very random.  It’s where I record experiences that were meaningful and where I reflect on the meaning of those experiences.  Sometimes those experiences and thoughts find their way into a youth ministry talk or a sermon.  Sometimes they get further developed here on this blog.

I began to flip through the oldest journal.  I saw a lot about college and classes. I even remembered an old classmate I had forgotten about.  And, thanks to the gift of Facebook, I friended her.  I saw stories from youth group (I had just started!)  And there were lots of questions.  Many of them raised during youth group or Bible studies.  Questions that, for me, were the first time I ever thought about them – much less struggled with them.

It was interesting and captivating to go through those pages and read my thoughts and see how I processed through those questions and experiences.  And how pages later, I was still struggling with them.  I read about our youth group walking the Slave Trail in downtown Richmond and about a boy named Seth, who has autism, asking me to tell him a story about Jesus.

There are prayer lists sprinkled through out and there are notes about films I had just seen. (Ozzie from Over the Hedge: “We die, so we live.”)  There were chronicles of adventures with friends, most notably those in Target with Kristin Nicely.  There are outlines for youth group programs and retreats.

One page just had two words: “Peace.”  “War.”

I’m sure there’s some deep, theological stuff going on there.

Towards the front of this ancient journal were memories.  I didn’t value the spiritual practice of journaling when Dad was sick as I do now.  This journal starts off remembering my father, his sickness, my thoughts and emotions around all that.  I had forgotten these pages existed.  By my best estimate, it was most likely written a year after Dad passed away.

In the midst of these memories were these words:

My father once told me that I had an incredible gift from God.  The gift of listening and hearing stories.

Stories have always been a huge part of my life.  And stories – telling stories, hearing stories, connecting stories, finding God in our stories – has shaped my youth ministry over the last ten years.  A lot of this was molded through classes with Dr. Dori Baker in seminary.

As I continued to flip through the journal, it suddenly stopped.  There were a number of empty pages in the back.  Blank.  White.  Untouched.  Stories untold.

It made me wonder, “What stories/events took place between those blank pages and the next journal I wrote in?”  “What stories went untold?” “What memories have I forgotten?”

But then, it made me think, “What stories are these pages telling?”  Are they stories filled with such joy that words could not express them?  Were they stories filled with stress and anxiety that no time was found to tell them?  Or maybe they were stories that were so painful that retelling it would only cause more pain.  I guess we’ll never really know.

But, I’m reminded as I flip through those empty pages, that whatever stories those pages were telling, God is in the empty pages.  God lives there, dwells there, and loves there just as God does anywhere else.   God is still in control in those empty pages days and uses what happens there to shape and mold us into who we are in the non-empty pages.

So, may God bless the empty pages days.