From: Lee
It’s funny that Julie should mention journaling. Recently, I started reading The Diary of a Young Girl (more commonly known as The Diary of Anne Frank). In the version of the edition that I have, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote an introduction which she started this way, “This is a remarkable book. Written by a young girl—and the young are not afraid of telling the truth—it is one of the wisest and most moving commentaries on war and its impact on human beings that I have ever read.”
Truth changes people. That’s why we are so quick to run from it, because really, who among us wants to change? But at the same time, all of us yearn for a deep soul connection with someone who will listen to us and love us through our faults. If we never get to the point in a relationship (romantic or otherwise) in which we are unable to let the other person see who we are—warts and all—then we are never fully satisfied with the relationship and we’ll continue to seek intimacy elsewhere.
That’s the situation that Anne Frank was in. She received a journal from her parents for her thirteenth birthday and early on she wrote down her reason for starting her journal:
“Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a girl of thirteen feels herself quite alone in the world, nor is it so. I have darling parents and a sister of sixteen. I know about thirty people whom one might call friends—I have strings of boy friends, anxious to catch a glimpse of me and who, failing that, peep at me through mirrors in class. I have relations, aunts and uncles, who are darlings too, a good home, no—I don’t seem to lack anything. But it’s the same with all my friends, just fun and joking, nothing more. I can never bring myself to talk of anything outside the common round. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, that is the root of the trouble. Perhaps I lack confidence, but anyway, there it is, a stubborn fact and I don’t seem to be able to do anything about it.
“Hence, this diary. In order to enhance in my mind’s eye the picture of the friend for whom I have waited so long, I don’t want to set down a series of bald facts in a diary like most people do, but I want this diary itself to be my friend, and I shall call my friend Kitty.”
Anne had plenty of attention, but nobody with whom she could bare her soul—nobody she could be completely honest with, so her diary became the personification of all she ever really wanted in a best friend. As I read Julie’s post last week, I couldn’t help but make the connection between what she said about the way she prayer journals and the way Anne Frank treated her journal as a friend. Both are extremely intimate and in both cases, their journals became their vehicles for expressing themselves in ways their souls craved.
God has always used words in mighty ways. He spoke the world into existence. He gave Moses his law in written form. Old Testaments kings were commanded to write the law by hand and then to study it. God instructed his people to write his commands on the doorposts of their home. When David fled for his life, he pled his case to God by writing Psalms. The prophets continually called Israel back to God with words of warning. In the New Testament, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He, that is Jesus, spoke eternity-changing words. The apostles wrote epistles that were spread throughout Asia Minor and ultimately the world and the world has never been the same since.
Just as surely as God has used words to bring people closer to himself throughout the ages, he is still doing it today. I met a woman once who carried around what she called her “Thank God For” notebook. Every day she writes down five specific, unique things she’s thankful to God for. So, every day her list looks different. One day she might thank God for his perfect timing regarding a certain event, a word aptly spoken to her by a stranger, etc. She told me that she felt closer to God by keeping her notebook because it made her more conscious of what God was doing every minute of her life as she looked for instances to record in her notebook.
As a single person, you might be yearning to for a romantic relationship. That’s not a bad thing. Continue to look for a possible marriage partner. But also take Julie’s advice and dive deeper into your relationship with Christ by keeping a journal of some sort—whether it’s a list, prayers, or some other form. You’ll be amazed by how much closer you feel to God.