Pondering Your Life’s Journey
Let’s consider today the fascinating task of pondering your life’s journey and then writing about it. So you don’t think anyone is interested? They will be someday, especially family members.
John C. Maxwell so beautifully reminds us, “Live the legacy you want to leave. A legacy lives on in people and people live on after you are gone.” One way I think we can leave it is to write it. When I read about my ancestors arriving in America from Scotland in the mid-1700s I was so happy to connect with our shared Christian faith because one man from the Lamont family boldly declared that his beloved Savior was Jesus Christ.
Scripture—Telling the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. (Psalm 78:4 NKJV)
Journey--“Life is about the journey, not the destination.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It’s special people we meet along life’s road who help us appreciate the journey.”-Hallmark
Ponder—to reflect deeply on events, to consider, to mull over, think over carefully, to ruminate, to let lingering thoughts unfold. Pondering can unearth your long-ago experiences, opinions, personal reflections, thoughts and memories.
Memory—is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose.—Anon.
Remember, remembrance— “To remember is a normal part of the activity of the human mind. When, however, God is the one who is remembered in prayer and ritual, or, when it is believed by the faithful that God himself is actually remembering his own relation to his people, then “to remember” with its appropriate nouns becomes a special verb in the religious vocabulary of Israel and the church of God. 1
Writing Quote: Rudyard Kipling helped us appreciate the importance of words—especially when writing or telling a story. “I keep six honest men; (They taught me all I knew). Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.”
Have you considered writing your life’s story for the generation behind you who will someday read it? Especially write incidents for your family members to know your personal experiences? Do consider it!
There are more than 500 references in the Bible related to the word “tell” including these: tell the people, tell your son, tell your brother, tell the good news. A testimony is “to tell something you know firsthand, or to authenticate a fact.” When we write about our journey we can not only tell about our everyday living, but we can include how knowing the Lord Jesus changed our life and helped us through it. Hopefully we will be influencing others for Christ.
The disciple Peter said: “But you are the ones chosen by God…God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.” (1 Peter 2: 9-10 The MESSAGE)
There are over 50 references to “journey” in the NIV Bible version. For example, the Lord commanded Moses to record the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt by stages. (See Numbers 33:1). Think about your journey. You could possibly categorize yours in stages if you chose to do so– some so good, others maybe not. It’s not so important how you write it as it is that do write it—or leave a recording of you telling it.
Here are some gems I gleaned from Arthur Gordon’s book, “Return to Wonder–Recapture a Childlike Fascination with Daily Life.” He admits, “Life is such a mysterious and complicated journey” and other quotes I liked:
“Most travelers, I think, look back in terms of things they see on their journeys. But I believe the things you remember longest are often the sudden, unexpected, surprising little happenings that jolt you for half a second, out of the rut you are in, or perhaps even out of the self you normally are.”
“Driving yourself to return to wonder is one thing, doing it is another. The trouble lies not in the lack of memories, but in the abundance of them. There are so many that the choice becomes difficult…In a way I think the more commonplace the happening the better. Then you have to work a bit to see the miraculous and let it come through. Perhaps what you have to do is add astonishment to ordinary cause-and-effect.” 2
So what were the astonishing, miraculous, even little commonplace happenings you can write for your footprints of faith to influence and fascinate others someday? Don’t say you are too busy. This writing assignment—even if it takes months or years—may be among the outstanding accomplishments you leave as a legacy for others to contemplate. Who knows, it may even be book size.
Key Prayer for a Writer. Adapted by Quin from “I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes” by Glenn Clark.
“In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray for the right ideas to come to me in perfect sequence and in perfect order, and in the right time and in the right way. I pray for my will to be completely and utterly Your will. I pray that You, O Father, will open the door to the right work that will enable me (and my family) to make our finest contribution to mankind. Amen.” 3 Scriptures: Mark 1:24; John 5:15,11:22; 14:13;15:16; 16:23.
Footnotes:
1. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary and Biblical Theology. Accessed website Feb.1,2023.
2. Arthur Gordon “Return to Wonder-Recapture a Childlike Fascination with Daily Life” (Guideposts book. Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, TN copyright 1996) pp.94,67. (Note: Quin studied under Mr. Gordon in 1973 at a writers conference).
3. Glenn Clark, “I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes,” (N.Y., NY, Harper & Brothers, 1937, several pages.
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