Journaling During Lent

Lent is a time to be intentional. It is more than giving up sweets for 40 days, or trying to be more devout. It is really a time to look seriously and intentionally at our lives— who we have been, who we are, and who we are becoming. Journaling is a way for us to embody this intention, because it gives us an environment for delving deeply into the bottomless well of our souls. Each week during Lent, take the time to use the journal as a spiritual practice for looking into the wonder you embody.

Cracked Wall Week One: RECEPTIVITY
We become so habituated to the routines of our lives, that we can find ourselves shut off from what is new, what is challenging, what takes us to the edge, what causes our heart to thump and our breath to shorten. Lent invites us to clear the channels—open the gates—unbar the doors that keep us safe and stuck in the comfortable patterns that are so familiar. Take time this week to consider how you are closed off to new experiences and begin to crack the walls that hold you enclosed.

journaling questions:
What patterns are keeping me bound in routines that are shutting me off from the wonder and dynamism of life?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

Week Two: REFLECTION
In a culture focused on results, we can find ourselves regularly alienated from reflection. We come to believe that reflection is akin to laziness or that it is only within the purview of philosophers, artists, and poets. So we avoid reflection, thinking it is little more than a form of luxurious leisure that we indulge in at our peril. The truth is that we are at peril when we avoid reflection, not when we engage in it. Lent invites us to reclaim reflection as a part of our life, and to find in reflection the possibility of renewal. Take time this week to stop your activity, your need to produce results, and let your mind descend into your soul to see what is growing there.

journaling questions:
In what ways can I be open to heaven’s hand in the merry-making events of my life?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

journaling
Week Three: DISCIPLINE
Discipline is a word that hearkens back to our childhood, or to the machinations of those in our lives who want us to conform to certain behaviors or to the needed requirement for developing character. Actually, the word is grounded in the word disciple, which means a learner. Discipline can become for us a way to encounter new learnings about ourselves and to actively engage in extracting from those learnings insights that can deepen our understanding of life and spirit. Lent invites us to re-enter the school of life and be discipled in the endless possibilities for growth. Take time this week to try out discipline with a new intention, and find the world opening up to you.

journaling questions:
What is life trying to teach me and how open am I to learning?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

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Week Four: TEMPTATION
All that we desire in life is not beneficial to us. We often are pulled away from what is helpful and healthy because we feel a lack of excitement, energy and enthusiasm in our life as it is. The seed of temptation begins to grow subtly within us, and we begin to find ourselves moving in a direction we had not planned, a direction we know is risky, a direction that promises more than it will ever deliver. Dealing with temptation is as much about rediscovering the wonder of our current life as it is about avoiding that which is alluring and seductive. Lent invites us to turn from temptation by turning toward what is helpful and healthy for us and finding there again what is life-giving. Take time this week to return to what feeds your life and captures the best part of your passion and soul.

journaling questions:
What in my life has become so familiar that I am tempted to find something new, and how can that familiarity be revived so that its previous exhilaration is restored?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

Week Five: OBEDIENCE Swim practice
Obedience feels too controlling—too manipulative. It feels as though some unseen external force is requiring of us what we do not want to give. We want to avoid such constriction, restriction. We want freedom and self-determination. But obedience is not the task-master that we fear it is. Obedience allows us to nurture and deepen what is best in our lives. It creates space for us to become truly proficient, fully expert in those things that can make us more complete as human beings. Lent invites us to attempt obedience as a way to penetrate that which we value most in our lives. Take time this week to explore what could grow in your life by your willingness to be obedient.

journaling questions:
What would obedience look like if I were to embrace it without fear?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

Week Six: SACRIFICE
It’s a process of letting go—letting go of plans, of needs, of rights, of agendas, of one’s own life. But, it’s a letting go that is grounded in the life of others rather than our own. We don’t let go—sacrifice—for our own sake. It is always and only for others. When our hearts have grown in compassion and love, we are willing to relinquish what seems so important to our own preservation and happiness in order that someone else’s life may be made richer by our own loss. Lent invites us to move to the edge of our own self-satisfaction and step off that edge into the abyss of self-sacrifice. Surprisingly, instead of losing our identity—our life—we find that the very death we embrace is our pathway to a new life. Take time this week to bravely jump into the blackness of sacrifice and there find the light of life.

journaling questions:
Where is my compassion so great that I will willingly sacrifice myself?

In my family?

In my work?

In my community?

In my soul?

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Journaling During Lent