Journaling for Spiritual Growth, my book that teaches you a sustainable practice for spiritual and emotional growth, comes out this week. This is the 2nd edition, published with Whitaker House. Let’s browse through the book together!

In this episode, Marc discusses his new book, Journaling for Spiritual Growth (2nd ed.), exploring its themes, structure, and the transformative power of journaling. He pages through the book, pointing out key features, so you can sort out if this is the right book for you.

Takeaways

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Marc Alan Schelske is a happily recovering fundamentalist praying for the restoration of all things. He writes and teaches about spiritual maturity, emotional growth, and the other-centered, co-suffering way of Jesus. His books, including Walking Otherward, Journaling for Spiritual Growth, and The Wisdom of Your Heart, can be found at www.MarcAlanSchelske.com. Marc serves as the teaching elder at Bridge City Community Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, where we work to keep all things, even Christianity, a bit weird.

Marc Schelske 0:00
Hey, friends. I’m Marc Alan Schelske, and this is The Apprenticeship Way, a podcast about spiritual growth following the way of Jesus. This is episode 61: Six weeks to grow? Yes, please!

SPONSOR

Today’s podcast is brought to you by my brand-new hot-off-the-presses book, Journaling for Spiritual Growth. Second Edition. Launch day is always exciting for an author, and this is my sixth launch. I’m starting to feel like I’m actually an author, maybe. The rest of this podcast is going to have to do with this book in some way, what it’s about. So that’s all I’ll say for now.

Marc Schelske 0:32
I spent a lot of time in bookstores when I was a kid. It’s a special kind of joyful piece to sit on the carpeted floor of a bookstore aisle, slowly browsing through books you might want to read. Most of us buy our books online now, so we don’t get to do that much anymore. I thought I would take some time to do that with you today. I recorded this Page Flip video of my new book a week ago, and it’s posted on my website, but I wanted to share it here with you, dear podcast listener, for two reasons.

First, because if you follow this podcast, you’re interested in the kinds of things I’m up to when it comes to spiritual practice, and the other-centered, co-suffering way of Jesus. So there’s a pretty good chance this book might be up your alley, but unless you know what’s in it, how will you know if it’s a book for you?

Second, I want to share this video with you, because along the way in the video, you’ll learn some interesting tidbits, like the meaning that’s built into the cover art and why journaling is so important to me. I’ll share my favorite endorsement. I’ll also share what I think about AI. I’ll talk about why the book has two introductions and why the appendices might be the most important part. I’ll explain the biggest hurdle to any spiritual practice being effective. I’ll talk about why I use footnotes in a book that’s not academic. I’ll tell you about the only safe environment for spiritual growth and the four crucial elements for a sustainable and impactful drilling practice. I mean, honestly, this video that I made, which is about 20 minutes long, is packed with great stuff.

Now, if you want to see the video version, which you might because it’s full of screenshots and pictures of the pages and everything that I’m describing, you can find that in two places. You can look for this podcast episode on YouTube, on my YouTube channel, or you can go to the book page on my website, for just the video itself. I know this is different than the normal kind of podcast episode that I create, but it’s important stuff to me, and I think it might be interesting to you because you follow me, so that’s why I’m sharing this today.

PAGING THROUGH THE BOOK TOGETHER

Marc Schelske 2:42
Back in the olden times, we bought books in brick-and-mortar bookstores. I know some of you still do, but most people don’t. Most books today are bought online, and in those olden times, when we went to the bookstore, one of the best experiences was being able to pick up a book off the shelf and spend some time flipping through it, reading the cover, looking through the table of contents, browsing through the chapters, reading a paragraph here or there, so that you can get a real sense of what this book was about and if it was the right book for you. Well, that’s what we’re going to do right now together. So if you want to know a little bit more about this book and what’s in it, come along for the journey.

So we pick up the book off the bookshelf, and the first thing that we see, of course, is the cover. So this beautiful cover is actually a riff on the original cover of the first edition by my inspired cover illustrator, Tamara. Whitaker House kept that as the basis for their inspiration for their cover. I’m grateful they were willing to do that, and we ended up with this cover.

So we’ve got the tree of life growing out of the journals, so you get that sense that the journals are this seedbed for growth. We’ve got the iconography of the fish and the grain, which, for me, brings to mind growth and nurturing, and nutrients. We’ve got the iconography of the sun and the doves of the Spirit, so that we’re not alone in this. We are in this process with God becoming who we were meant to be.

And then, of course, on the back, you’ve got this quick marketing blurb, what the book is about. If you only have thirty seconds to figure out if this is the book for you, this is the place to start. And then we’ve got a few blurbs that I’m grateful for from people that I respect. So, the marketing blurb on the back: “Journaling will change you.” That is absolutely my experience. That is not an exaggeration. It’s absolutely true of me.

“Spiritual and personal growth is possible. Over the centuries, journaling has emerged as one of the most consistently transformative practices recommended by leaders across spiritual traditions, therapists, coaches and others. Why then, are so many people intimidated by journaling today while others try it, only to give it up?” Maybe you’re one of those people who’s tried to journal and you’ve bounced off of it? Well, we’re going to talk about that.

“Incorporating both ancient spiritual wisdom and current neurobiology. Journaling For Spiritual Growth teaches you how to be present to your life and hear what the Spirit is doing within you. Over six weeks, you’ll learn why diaries and goal tracking can’t transform us, what expectations undermine journalism effectiveness, what mindsets and questions are most helpful for lasting growth, how structure can be a gentle friend, how to create sustainable habits for your life and temperament.” Does that sound good? That’s what we’re up to.

And then some of the endorsements. You can read those yourself. When we open the book, the very first thing are those endorsements in full as well, and–this is the most important endorsement–a page of endorsements from actual readers who read the first edition, real people who got the book, who read the book, who were impacted by the book, and wrote about it.

So we hear Lani Kent say, “Marc reveals compassionate and beautifully nuanced layers to consider in developing a sustainable practice of journaling.” Thank you so much. Sam Elie: “Journaling for spiritual growth is an accessible guide for building a reliable and deepening self reflective practice.” That’s exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you, Sam. And then this one, which really hit me hard. “I wish this book had been around during a pivotal time in my life, when I was at the start of my deconstructing process, trying to form a new connection to my last shred of spiritual practice. I found this book clear, focused and transparent in all of its intentions.” Oh, this is what I want to give to people

I’ll let you read the endorsements by the well-known people. I will just share one, just because it cracks me up. This is from Wm. Paul Young, the guy who wrote The Shack and other things. I remember getting this endorsement in my email. I read it, and I just burst out laughing. This is what he wrote. “I kept waiting for this book to disappoint.” We’re off to a good start, aren’t we? “I kept waiting for this book to disappoint, for it to turn into something harsh rather than kind rigid, rather than flexible, even more harmful than helpful, it did not and for that, I am grateful.”

I love that so much because it captures this experience so many of us have had, where spiritual writing so often comes from this perspective of legalism or obligation or performance, where you’re being told to accomplish something. This is not what I’m up to. I’m just so thrilled to hear those words that he was expecting it to be rigid, when, in fact, it turned out not to be.

The next interesting thing is that we turn to this boring page that’s in all of your books. It’s the copyright page. It’s got all the legal information, but there’s something on it that I want you to see. This badge right here. If you look closely, it says, “Human Authored, the Authors Guild.” And then there’s a registration number. I’m a member of the Authors Guild. They’ve created a registry for books that are certified human-created. So you’re not allowed to use AI in your ideation. You’re not allowed to use AI in your writing. You can use limited AI and spell check, and grammar check, but that’s it, nowhere else. That’s really important to me. Creating is, I think, when we are the most like God. It’s when we are living out our identity, when we make things. Outsourcing that to an algorithm undermines our humanity. I’m just never going to do it. I’m never going to use AI to write, and I want you to know that. And so I’ve registered this book with the Human Authored Registry with the Authors Guild, and I think you’ll see that in all my books going forward.

The next thing that you’ll find is the table of contents. So you’re going to see the structure of the book. You’ll notice the book is divided into six weeks. Each week has five entries. So, that gives you some margin. If you’re trying to follow the book every day, you can miss a day or take weekends off. The main content of the book is those six weeks. And then you’ll notice there’s a whole selection of appendices. We’re going to talk about those because they’re really important, even though they’re often skipped. Don’t skip these. And if you’re looking at the ebook version, these are going to be linked, of course, so that you can jump right to the sections.

There are two introductions to this book. Crazy. That’s two too many, right? Most people don’t read all this stuff at the beginning of books. We’ve got a word for it in publishing. It’s called the front matter, as if it’s not even the book yet, and many people treat it that way. But here’s something I want you to know: Most writers spend as much time and focus on the introduction as they do on other parts of their book. It matters.

The introduction matters to me because it’s an act of hospitality. You’ve come to my house, you’re walking in the front door, and this is my opportunity to say, “Hey, here’s where you hang your coat. Here’s where the bathroom is, here’s what’s on the menu for dinner tonight. Do you want to stick around? Is there anything I can do to help you feel more comfortable?” That’s what the introduction is for. So that we can be on the same page, and so that you’re not wasting your time–I do not want you to spend your limited time reading this book if it’s not the right book for you. In the introduction, I provide everything you need to know to make that decision.

Why are there two? Well, because this is the second edition. So we’ve got the introduction to the second edition, which talks a little bit about lessons learned since the book was originally published. The second introduction was actually called “How to Use This Book.” Crazy, right? You’re a grown person. You’ve read books before. You don’t need instructions on the technology of book reading. See, that’s the point. This isn’t about reading a book straight through. This book is designed to guide you in establishing a practice. This introduction will guide you through using this book most effectively. It’s going to tell you who I am and where I’m coming from, which ought to be a really important question that you’re asking. If you come to a book that’s purporting to say something about God and the spiritual life, you really ought to wonder, “Who is writing this book? What’s their viewpoint?” Well, I’m going to give you that right up front, so you’re not guessing. You can decide right off the bat if you want to spend time with me. Am I the kind of person you want to learn from? Because if I’m not, I don’t want you to waste your time. So I’m going to give you that information right up front.

Then we shift into the weeks. Each week starts with a one or two-page introduction that sets the theme for that week. Every week has a particular theme. So Week One is “Choosing the Right Perspective.” In my life of journaling since I was a teenager, and in my teaching of journaling as a pastor, I’ve discovered that really the biggest hurdle to a sustainable journaling practice is unrealistic expectations. There are a lot of pictures people have of what journaling ought to be, what it ought to look like, what it ought to feel like, and most of those expectations are completely unhelpful. So we’re going to start talking about the perspectives that will allow your journaling to be long-term term sustainable, and effective.

After that introduction, we get to Day One of that week. Every day is going to have the same format. There’s going to be a short reflection that is going to basically give you one principle that I want you to understand, and then there’s going to be a section called “Practice” where you’re given something to do. You know, by the time we get a couple of weeks into the book, the To Do is journaling. You’ll be journaling, and I’ll guide you through what to journal about and how to do it. But every day will have something you do to help you engage with the idea of that day.

The reading is not going to take long. Most people will read the reflection in five maybe eight minutes. The practice can take as long as you want it to take. I think most people will be able to do most of these things in fifteen or twenty minutes. Obviously, you could go deeper, and it could take longer; that’s up to you. Then, you finish that and move on to the next day.

One thing you’ll also notice is that there are footnotes. Now this is not an academic book. The footnotes are not primarily to connect you to original sources, although I do some of that because there are topics that you might be interested in. I’ll say, “Hey, here’s a great book on that topic.” But I also use the footnotes to do two other things to expand on potential off-ramps. You come to some claim I’m making, and you’re like, “huh, I don’t think that’s true.” Through the course of my own writing, through the process with beta readers and others who helped me with the book, some of those off ramps have surfaced, and I’ve tried to address them in the footnotes where I’ll say something like, “Hey, if you’re concerned about this, or if your experience is different, here’s a way for you to think about that.” And I move those things to the footnotes because they don’t apply to everyone, and they get in the way of the flow of the reading. And so I want them there for you, but I also don’t want them to get in the way. So you can skip the footnotes if you want. You can read them if you want. Some of the footnotes are going to be interesting. Some of them may have snide remarks that don’t feel like they should be in the body text, but I still want to make the comment so that it’s in footnotes.

Each day includes a “Read and Reflect” section for reading and a “Practice” section to start your journaling process. Now. You can take these one day at a time, or if you find that one particular entry is challenging and you want to think about it more, you can take as long as you need before you proceed. That’s up to you and what feels best for you and your process. Don’t move on to the next reading just because it’s the next reading; move on when you’re ready. Move on when you’ve done the work that’s involved.

Week Two addresses your tools, like the physical tools that you use to do the practice. Are you a pen and paper journaler? Are you a keyboard and computer journaler? The pros and cons of both, the lessons I’ve learned that apply to both, and how to make them work for you. We’re also going to talk about things like when you choose to do your journaling during the day and how often you choose to do it. And I’m going to suggest that the most important tool of all for a sustainable long-term journaling practice is actually not a physical tool at all. It’s an attitude, the attitude of gracious flexibility. So here’s the thing: the only safe environment for spiritual growth is the environment of grace. If you feel driven to accomplish something, if you feel like you have to prove yourself or accomplish spirituality, your journal will just become a burden. You will miss days, because that’s how life works. And eventually, you’re going to feel like the journal is just not working for you, and you’re going to set it aside. So if you want this to be a long-term habit that helps you mature as a person, you have to hold the whole thing with this attitude of generous, gracious flexibility. So we’re going to talk about that, what that means, and how it works.

Week Three is about understanding the essential ingredients. There are lots of ways to journal, and I’ve done many of them. There are many books on journaling. There are many processes for journaling. There’s journaling in coaching, there’s journaling in therapy. There’s spiritual journaling, and there’s journaling that goes along with Bible study. There are emotional journals, all different kinds. What I have discovered along the way is that if your journal is going to help you grow, there are really four things that have to be a part of your journaling practice. And so I teach these four things. I call them “The Spine” because they’re what gives structure and stability to your journaling practice. There are lots of different elements you can include in your journaling, but if you don’t have these four elements, if you don’t have the Spine, then your journaling is going to slump, and eventually it’s going to feel less effective. And because of that, eventually you’re going to quit.

So I teach the Spine: these four essential ingredients that hold the whole thing together. First, there’s silence. We need to enter into this process in a state of reflection, rather than a state of being rushed, which is the way most of us live, and silence helps us do that. Second, there’s some kind of focused, inward reflection. Third, there’s Godward reflection. I’m going to talk about what both of those things mean and why we do them in that order. And then the last thing, the fourth thing, is prayer. This isn’t the typical grocery list style of prayers, where you say “God be with…” and name off everyone from your family all the way up to the President or whoever. This is the kind of prayer that is about connection, union, and the intention for your life. If you’re not a particularly religious person, I’ll show you how this can still be a tool for you. These four elements–silence, inward reflection, Godward reflection, prayer–form the structure that you can adjust, that you can add to, but that Spine has to be there for the process to stay ongoing, sustainable, and helping you grow as a person.

In Week Four, I present an idea that, in all the years that I’ve taught journaling, I have found many people resist at first. I suggest that if you want a long-term, sustainable journaling practice, you should stick with a template. By that, I mean that you need to have a predetermined order that defines what you’ll journal about. Now I know that that sounds limiting. Creative people always hate this idea. But here’s the thing: if you pick up your pen or keyboard and open your journal to a blank page, and you have no sense of direction, then what will happen is you will spend all of your reflective energy deciding what to write about. That can certainly be an interesting exercise, but it’s not a sustainable journaling practice for most people. In Week Four, I’ll provide several examples of templates and show you how to select one that works for you.

These templates are adjustable. You can add elements that work for your life, but you need that structure so that your mind is freed from the task of figuring out what to write about. The template provides a set of boundaries, allowing you to enter the process easily. So during Week Four, you’re going to practice four different templates that range from short to long and that have different elements in them, so that you can kind of see what a template is like from the inside. Because ultimately, you’re going to be developing your own template. But I want to give you a starting place so that you can get rolling and have a feeling for what this is like and how it’s helpful.

Then we come to Week Five. Now, by Week Five, you’re journaling, right? We’ve already had conversations about whether you’re going to journal analog, pen and paper, or on a computer. We’ve talked about when and where, and now you’ve started to use a template. You’re journaling at this point. And so in Week Five, I don’t add any new instruction for how to journal. So instead, Week Five focuses on empowering your habit, because that’s the goal. We want journaling to be a long-term, sustainable tool in your life that helps you grow as a person. Well, if it’s going to be long-term and sustainable, it has to become a habit. So how does that work?

We are going to address competing habits and how to notice them in your life. We’re going to talk about how to anchor a chain trigger. This is one of the most powerful tools that I’ve learned in habit building. So, I’m going to teach you how to anchor a chain trigger, which makes keeping a habit much easier. We’re going to talk about the reward process for habits. We’re going to talk about lessons that you can learn from your negative, unhealthy habits and how you can leverage those to keep this habit strong and sustainable.

So, we come to the last week, Week Six. You’re already journaling, so now we’re going to focus on the future. We’re going to talk about how you maintain a long-term practice, how you make adjustments to it as the seasons of your life change, so that it becomes flexible enough to grow with you as you grow. The last day, Week Six, Day Five, is called “Choosing Faithfulness.” Now I grew up in a fairly rigorous fundamentalist religious community. In that community, faithfulness meant really perfection. It meant always doing what you were supposed to do. What I’ve found is that’s a very unhelpful way to think about faithfulness. Faithfulness, in the context of a spiritual discipline, is always coming back. Recognizing that life is what life is–which means it’s unpredictable. It’s largely out of your control. You have obligations to other people that you have to fulfill. This all means any spiritual practice that’s going to last in your life has to be a spiritual practice that is flexible and can accommodate the realities of your life. And so, we end this journey talking about faithfulness, coming back, coming back again, and coming back again.

But, you’ll notice at this point the book’s not done. We’re on page 151 and there’s 60 more pages! So what is in those 60 pages? Ah, my friend, let me tell you the appendices. I know most people skip appendices. They never look at them. This isn’t an academic book, so it doesn’t have tables and charts at the end. Why on earth are there appendices? Well, because there’s other stuff that I want to give you that will be helpful to you. So what are those appendices?

The first appendix is an essay called “What is Spiritual Growth?” That phrase–spiritual growth–is so vague, and so many people use it. Because I’m talking about spiritual growth, I thought maybe you should know what I mean by spiritual growth. So that’s what that essay is. If you are trying to figure out if this is the right book for you, reading that appendix alone will give you a really good sense of whether you want to have this conversation with me.

Then there’s Appendix Two. This is a brand new essay that is in this edition only, and it’s called “Silence for the Children of Noise.” I teach the beginning of the journaling process as sitting in silence. The feedback I’ve received since this book came out two years ago is that it’s the single hardest part of this process. People really struggle with sitting in silence. They don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like. They don’t know how to do it. They’re not sure if they’re being successful when they do it. So, I’ve gotten lots of questions about sitting in silence. What is it like? How does it work? So I wrote an essay about that. What are some of the reasons why silence is so hard for us, and what might we do about it?

Then, Appendix Three. Now we’re getting to appendices that are tools to help you in your process as you journal. Appendix Three is all about building and evaluating your template. So when I teach about templates in week four, ultimately, I don’t want you to use my template. I want you to use a template that works best for you, for your temperament, and your life. So, I’m going to show you how to build that, what things to think about, and what questions to ask yourself. And then, when is it time to change your template, because your template should evolve with you as your life changes.

Appendix Four is recommended tools and tips for journaling. This is a lot of really practical stuff. If you journal analog, what are the best kinds of journals to use? What are the best kinds of pens to use? What are concerns that you might have about keeping your journal safe? If you journal digitally, what’s the best software to use? What are the best ways to structure a digital journal so that doesn’t get in the way? How do you deal with all of the notifications? It’s loads of practical stuff that’s come from years and years of experience.

Then, Appendix Five. This is a gold mine. Honestly, if nothing else in this book speaks to you, Appendix Five is probably worth the price of admission. It’s called “Ways to Practice.” In this appendix, I go through each of those four elements–silence, inward focus, Godward focus, and prayer–and I recommend practices and resources for each of those things. I think there are probably 50 or 60 links out to other books and resources that will help you in your journey.

Appendix Six, finally, is literature on habit building. There are some great books that I’ve read on habit building and some academic studies. I’ve shared with you as well if you’re interested in those things.

So that’s the whole book. That’s what you would find if you picked this up on a shelf in a bookstore and browsed through it to decide, “Is this the right book for me?” If it sounds interesting to you, if it sounds like it might be helpful to you, as a person, to begin building a practice where you are reflecting on the experience of being yourself, listening for the voice of the Spirit in the midst of that reflection, so that you can grow and deepen emotionally and spiritually as a person, then I’d like to share that journey with you.

So there you go. That’s the book. The last thing I want to do is waste your time. So this whole podcast is meant to help you decide if this book is the right book for you or perhaps someone that you love. Next month, we’ll come back to our regularly scheduled spiritual life content with a great conversation with somebody that I think is going to benefit you. We’ll see you then.

May you find the right path for your own growth and healing. Thanks for listening.

CLOSING

Notes for today’s episode and any links mentioned, you’ll find at www.MarcAlanSchelske.com/TAW061

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Until next time, remember: In this one present moment, you are loved, you are known, and you are not alone.