Journaling Scripture: The Two Pen Approach

Many of the journaling guides I have shared integrate scripture reading, but none tell how to simply use your journal in your personal Bible study. So here begins a five-part series on how to journal any scripture passage using a few Bible translations, a basic concordance, your imagination and two pens.

HOW TO JOURNAL SCRIPTURE

When you read the Bible, does a concept every glow with sudden clarity or a phrase jump out anew? That’s the Holy Spirit preparing to teach you. You can steward the moment by journaling it.

First, simply stop to copy the passage, whether it’s a single phrase from Jesus, a stanza from David, a paragraph from Paul or a whole chapter from Isaiah. Copy scripture with your black pen.

Then, as you copy, questions will emerge or clarity will come. Invite the interruption. Stop copying, even mid-sentence, and switch pens. Use your colored pen to get the thoughts out on the page. Sometimes the thoughts are cerebral and theological, sometimes they are heartwarming and inspirational, sometimes they are emotional and messy. Often they glow with a new understanding that the Spirit gives (sometimes you may feel like God is writing through your hand).

Write with the colored pen until you run out of things to write- it may be a sentence or it may be five pages. Then switch to your black pen and continue copying the passage… until another thought hits.

With my colored pen, I may:

Express gratitude or awe, just adoring God and speaking the truth to my own heart.
Have an epiphany, then spend pages delving and discovering and applying it.
Feel convicted and write out my repentance and request for help.
Feel convicted and write out my agitation before humbly asking for help.
Be confused and toss an idea around like a ball, asking God questions about it.
Sense the Spirit inviting me to linger a little longer with a passage, writing it slowly like tactile Lectio Divina.

The psalmist often switches from speaking about God to speaking to God to speaking as God all in one chapter. Those Psalms used to drive me crazy. I’d groan, Writer, pick a voice! Then I realized, Oh my journals are just like that. I will start out journaling about God then switch to talking to God, then my pen will go right along and preach something to my own heart from God’s perspective. That’s one of the beauties of journaling. Let your pen go as your words flow.