Have you ever been stuck and you are not really sure how you should feel? You are waiting for answers but don't know what direction to go, even what direction to pray as you wait
Then I would say Write.
Please don't think I am going to lecture you about journaling, where you have to be compelled every day to write down what happened to you: "Today I went to the store and spent $15 on chocolate. No, I can't put that in writing. I don't want a record to incriminate me!"
What I am suggesting is quite different. Bestselling author Philip Yancey states, "I write to know what I am thinking." That is what I recommend. When my thoughts are swirling around in my head, when I feel unsettled, when I've taken my personal inventory, and I'm uneasy, even anxious, as I wait on God for answers to life's challenges, then I put my pen to the page and write down what I am feeling. It off-loads my cares, and I can more adequately "Cast my cares on the Lord because he cares for me," like Peter explains in 1 Peter 5:7. Here is that verse in the Voice translation: "Since God cares for you, let Him carry all your burdens and worries," The Voice Translation."
Neuroscientist and God-follower Caroline Leaf states, " Writing activates the basal ganglia in the brain which allows for cognitive fluency. The act of writing out our thoughts, stimulates neurotransmitters that help to clear our thinking." In some of her research, she even discovered that when folks were writing, they experienced a significant drop in their cortisol levels, the hormone that deals with stress. To quote Yancey, it slows us down enough to know what we are thinking and feeling. And as I slow my roll, I invite the Lord to the process to tell me what He thinks about what is going on in my situation. That is where the answers come.
In the writing I have done to understand what I am thinking and feeling, I have developed what I call My Counseling Sessions with God. As a counselor for the past 35 years, I know how the process of counseling works. Unlike introducing myself to someone and promptly forgetting their name or fishing a cake mix box out of the trash because I forgot the directions I just read, I've done this enough to have it down.
Since I know how the counseling process flows, I've been able to apply that practice to receive counsel from God. I have laid it out for you in a blog I posted last October, simply titled Counseling Sessions with God. I hope you can benefit from it.
I have done a lot of writing since I have been waiting on God for answers for my health. It has led me to look at myself and see things that need to change--like my tendency to find my worth in what I do instead of who Christ is in me. Ouch! Now that my ability to do is limited, I don't have a choice but to recognize that my value comes from Christ's redemptive work on the cross. I'm still processing this. It's both a blessing and a puzzle, I will admit.
I pray that you will find blessings and challenges as you write while you are waiting for your answers.
There is more to come.