Writing as a Spiritual Practice

Writing to Save the day

“Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write.

Quite often a difficult, painful, or frustrating day can be "redeemed" by writing about it. By writing we can claim what we have lived and thus integrate it more fully into our journeys. Then writing can become lifesaving for us and sometimes for others too.”

Henri Nouwen, Henri Nouwen Society, Daily Meditations

Rocks and WriteJoanna ES Campbell

My exposure to writing as a spiritual practice first began when I heard or experienced some situation that I knew I wanted to remember, and so I tried to write it down. At first I had to write about it almost immediately or I would lose the observation. The more vividly I described the scene, the more I remembered. Eventually I learned to keep an experience in my head for a little longer and digest it before I wrote about it. Sometimes the need to write down the experience was so overpowering that I had to stop what I was doing. I learned over time that as I wrote, images, ideas came that I had never started with. It was as if the writing was out of my control. I also learned that every message I wrote that I hoped might be useful to others was really meant for me. It was something I needed to hear. Now my writing has become my best  prayer. Writing is a time of peace. I do feel the “fruit of the spirit” when I write. (Galatians 5:22-23) When I write and do not feel peace, love, joy, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control, I know am not doing something right. My belief is that in our writing, we do have an opportunity to let the Holy Spirit help us see where God is working in our lives and in the lives of others we are called to put to paper. I also am learning that God uses every part of our lives. I know my medical training where I had to “publish or perish”, where I had to learn to describe in detail what I was observing, to research what others had done on the subject, but to try to come up with a different or new viewpoint or confirm an old idea was a way to practice writing about seeing where God is present and is intimately working in our lives. No experience is ever wasted in our lives. God uses every part of our lives to attempt to connect to us. It is a small measure of God’s love for us.

Joanna       joannaseibert.com  

Wilderness Buechner

 In the Wilderness Buechner

The Final Secret

“THE FINAL SECRET, I think, is this: that the words "You shall love the Lord your God" become in the end, less a command than a promise. And the promise is that, yes, on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, we will come to love him at last as from the first he has loved us—loved us even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, because he has been in the wilderness with us. He has been in the wilderness for us. He has been acquainted with our grief. And, loving him, we will come at last to love each other too so that, in the end, the name taped on every door will be the name of the one we love.

"And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you rise."

And rise we shall, out of the wilderness, every last one of us, even as out of the wilderness Christ rose before us. That is the promise, and the greatest of all promises.

- Frederick Buechner, Originally published in A Room Called Remember, from Frederick Buechner Center, Quote of the Day.

Path out of wilderness along the water.. joanna es campbell

I daily talk with people living in the wilderness. I still remember what it was like for me to journey into the wilderness. I also know my wilderness experiences are not the same as theirs, so I listen and listen and listen to their story. I try not to give advice, which is so difficult for the “fixer” in me. I try not to tell about my journey, because I remember I mostly wanted to have someone listen to me when I lived in my wilderness.  The only real answer I know is this insight from Buechner that our God, Christ, was in the wilderness as well. This is amazing if you really think about it. The God of our understanding knows, really knows what it is like to live in the wilderness. Our God is a wounded healer.

 God’s promise also is presence. Our God promises presence with us always but especially in the wilderness. There are also angels there who will minister to us. Being aware of their presence can make all the difference. My experience is that if we keep making gratitude lists and keep trying to learn what the wilderness has to teach us, we will begin to see the angels as well as God’s presence. We slowly start our journey out of the desert, remembering what we were taught by the wilderness experience as we begin that new journey now as wounded healers.

Joanna                   joannaseibert.com

Rohr Holy Spirit Service

Rohr      Service

“If your spiritual practice doesn’t lead you to some acts of concrete caring or service, then you have every reason not to trust it.”   Richard Rohr, Adapted from Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 107-108. From Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation from Center for Action and Contemplation

Rafting on the rapids of the Snake River with friends and family

 Richard Rohr gives us an outstanding benchmark to determine if our spiritual practices are relevant, if this practice is really working for us. If the practice leads to service or caring for others, then we are on the right track. When friends come for spiritual direction and talk about being “dry”, this can be a good test to use to determine if they should change their spiritual practices. If they are still feeling compassion for others, we might suggest to keep going with the practice a little longer. If there is no concern for others, this may be a sign to try another spiritual practice to find connection to God.

If the Spirit is working in our lives, there is only one way it can go, and that is outward. The Holy Spirit is not a halo but more like a river on the move. It can be like the current in the mighty Mississippi flowing downstream to the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly. On occasion, it can be like the rapids on the Snake River. Watch out!  We will need to keep our life jackets on and stay close to our community for this one.  When we are connected to the Love of God, it must flow outward. When we are aware of God, the Christ within ourselves, it can only flow out and lead us to seeing the Christ in another.

Joanna    joannaseibert@me.com

We will be taking a sabbatical from Daily Somethings for a week. See you again next Friday.