I am a serious worrier. If I’m not worrying, my brain becomes alarmed. “Something is wrong!” it cries. It rummages around and finds some problem in the world, some person in my life, or some event looming in my future for me to consider. Then it sits back and lets the worrying begin anew. Thanks, brain.
Sometimes when I am caught up in fears about the future, I sit down with my journal, and record as much as I can about the present. I did it today. I wrote about the soy latte I was drinking; about the Vancouver Winter Olympics; about how the trees are all blossoming early this year; about the short stories and poetry I am writing; about my church.
My current journal will soon be full, and I will put it on a shelf with the other notebooks I’ve filled over the years. When I open it again five years from now, my ramblings of the past few months will have transformed into a story. The theme of this story will be God’s faithfulness. I know this, because this is the theme of every journal I have filled over the years, even if I didn’t know it at the time.
It is good for me to look at my old journals, because I not only worry about the future; I also idealize the past. I tend to recall the past as a simpler time, when happiness came more easily. But when I read my old journals, I see that I was as full of questions, worries and doubts as I am now. The real difference is my perspective.
As I write in my journal, I know that today’s entry is just another chapter in a long story. I don’t know whether the next chapter will be primarily comic or tragic. But this is the story of God’s Spirit working in me to make me more like Christ. He will finish the work he has started. So I don’t need to worry; this is a good story.
Even if you don’t journal regularly, try taking time every now and then to write about what is happening in your life. Try this: Start a page with the phrase, “Now is the time …” and complete the sentence in as many ways as possible. You’ll discover all kinds of things that make this time in your life a unique part of your story.
Posted by Elise 
