Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Thursday!  All is well here at 811. 10 treatments down and 24 to go. The fatigue is beginning and so are the skin changes.  Aloe vera here I come.

Dear God, Thank you for the gift of words. Thank you for the inspiration to write things down.  You have helped me to write down the things you want me to remember and for making your promises so very real through the written word. Thank you for the thoughts of others in devotional writing that causes me to think on scripture and have it to make meaning in my life.  And thank you for spaces to share my thoughts and meditations and hope they are helpful to someone else. Lord, it is through this gift of writing, your words, allowing me to pray to you and you remaining in conversation with me all of these years. I love you Lord and treasure our time together each night. In Jesus name, amen.

I do not exactly remember when I began journaling.  Journaling is how I have worked out my grief. I have written letters to God pouring out my heart, venting anger, giving thanks, words of praise and hope and telling God my deepest, inner most thoughts of joy and sometimes the depths of despair. Journaling became a passion during the year of Casey’s illness and death.  I continued to write following that time to keep me engaged with scripture and I began to learn the power of the written word..  But these have not just been one sided conversations. These have been recordings of communication with God.  

I did not realize until reading the verse from tonight that God called the prophet Habakkuk to write down the revelations given to him. God did not intend for Habakkuk to keep these writings to himself, but to write them on tablets of stone.  Well the closest my writing gets to a stone tablet is the save button on my computer. But I think God meant that the written word is powerful and long lasting. Dr. Maya Angelo silenced her voice for 5 years when she was a child because she believed her disclosure of the man who raped her caused his death. While her spoken  voice was silent she found the power of the written word as she began to read literature of all types. A new voice appeared as she began to write and journal through her life.  I think when we are quiet before God whether we are sitting silently in meditation or reading scripture we hear the voice of God far more clearly than when we are speaking.  So…if you are not accustomed to writing down the things you have learned during your quiet time with God you might just try it. A few sentences will do and see how God blesses you through this spiritual practice. 

“Then the Lord replied, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets.”

Habakkuk 2: 2

“Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.”

Revelation 1: 19

Take joy in the journey and pack a pen and a notebook. Write a letter to God and see how it blesses you. Wear comfortable shoes, get some sleep and think pink. Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene