karenoch

I’m doing a series of entries on my sabbatical goals.

This post continues from first entry on my second sabbatical goal of REFLECTION. I wrote yesterday about the first of three reflective activities I did, which was Scripture reading & prayer. Today, I share about the other two activities I did to reflect during sabbatical: journaling and verbally sharing.

JOURNALING
My journal habits reveal when and how much I need to process. If you snuck a peak at my journal (please don’t) you could see when I felt the need to journal daily and when I allowed weeks or months between entires. You could also see from my journal when I had much or little going through my mind. Some entires were only a few sentences while others took up several paragraphs. During sabbatical, some entries even filled multiple pages.

I find great help in this old fashioned exercise of putting pen to paper. (And it must be a good pen.) The act of journaling provided some of the best insights for my situations (and my sermons, too). At these times, I always asked myself, “How come I don’t make time to journal more often?” But on other days, I have little to write. During this sabbath, I found I was bursting with thoughts to process. Thank God for journaling.

VERBAL SHARING
Verbally sharing rounded out my reflective activities. Scripture put insights into my mind. Journaling put insights onto paper. But conversation helped refine and transform insights into actionable steps. So I sought to dialogue about my reflections with a few select individuals from outside my usual circles of friends and mentors. I sought out some men who have known me for years. I also sought out a few brothers who did not know me previously, but had much wisdom and experience about pastoring in the local church. And finally, I met with some folks because God allowed our paths to cross unexpectedly.

I also talked for many, many hours with my wife. She has learned to identify my different talking modes. Sometimes I tell her about an idea I definitely want to try out. Other times, I’m just thinking out loud. It may sound like I know what I want to do, but Karen knows I haven’t a clue. That’s why I’m talking about it. If I knew exactly what I wanted to do, she’d probably already know it.

Karen gave me the gift of listening to my extra long ramblings during these past six months. She listened while preparing meals. She listened while we drove. She listened late at night when she was exhausted. I’m thankful to God for providing me a partner and best friend whose ability to listen matches my considerable ability to talk.

Tomorrow I will conclude my sharing about my second sabbatical goal of REFLECTION. I will blog about how to take the insights I’ve been reflecting upon and put them into action.

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