A Journal can be a daily record (a diary) of events and experiences. It can be a way of self-examination and reflection where one works with his/her own private thoughts and feelings. I’m not quite sure how to describe my journaling through the years. I guess it is a little bit of both. Here are some excerpts of thirty-plus years ago.
"Do I (do you?) have a cause to live for? Do I (do you?) have a dream to inspire me? Do I know (do you know?) a power that will carry me through all things? If the answer is “Yes”, then we must work for that cause, follow that dream, and use that power! This is the Christian journey: the Cause, the Dream, the Spirit."
"Shakespeare has Prince Hal say of the unoriginal mind that forever tramps along with the crowd: “Thou art a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks…”. But what if you do not think as every man thinks? To think differently (than the crowd) is the Christian way and it isn’t always popular. As Goethe puts it, “The Public is a great baby, you must give it what it wants, or it will cry.” And what does the crowd want? It wants the status quo and the Christian Way rejects that! The great temptation is to succumb to public opinion, to become one of the crowd."
"I have often done what so many others do. I have had the tendency to create a god in my own image. To picture god in my own likeness is to make a god who is but a shadow of myself, a god blurred and distorted by my own finite mind. I make god small when I think of god as my god. Jesus made his father larger than himself…"
"Jesus tells his disciples to cast their nets wide. I must cast my net wide in terms of my reading and study. I can’t be a man of “one book,” as John Wesley claimed to be. I must read and study all kinds of books: biography, philosophy, history, science, so as not to lose touch with the realities of life. I am called to love God with all my mind, as well as with my heart, soul and strength."
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