Growing up, my Dad was constantly studying for his weekly sermons. When I came home from school, while we watched movies or sporting events on TV, when I woke up or went to sleep…he’d usually be in his chair in the living room with his spiral notebooks diligently writing away at the things in his heart God was giving him. He still does it to this day, and I love seeing it whenever I go home.

We have countless boxes in the attic full of Dad’s sermon notes over the years. We’ve tried to get him to go digital (to save entire forests), but once you form a habit, it’s hard to break. So, he writes away.

One summer in junior high, Mom gave me the job of going through these boxes in an effort to organize their contents. I was to categorize them based on subject matter, series, or year. Easy, right? Easy until we realized that we couldn’t read Dad’s handwriting one bit.

It didn’t used to be that way. I saw some of my Dad’s writing from his early years that was clear and neat. But over the years, his handwriting has morphed into something more akin to hieroglyphics. Unless he’s trying really hard to write neatly, it can be quite difficult to decipher. I am not telling you anything that my sweet Daddy doesn’t know already. More times than he would probably care to admit, even he was unable to recognize his writing himself.

I’d like to think my handwriting is more like my grandfather’s. My Dad’s dad — Paw-Paw, as he is lovingly endeared — has the most amazing penmanship. I loved it when his birthday cards came in the mail, if only to see his writing on the envelope and in card. I have been told that I have nice penmanship as well. Although I don’t think it touches Paw-Paws, I do take comfort in the fact that my writing is not compared to my Dad’s.

Yet…a funny thing happened the other day! I was writing quickly in my journal, and as I looked down, I realized that, like my dad, I could not recognize my handwriting. Usually, I am pretty purposeful about my script, especially in my journal and when taking notes, because I like for it to look nice. But this time, I wasn’t thinking about it, and I was writing fast and sloppy.

There is a pen with which we write our lives.

Our lives are a book, and we have control over the pen that writes among its pages. Are we writing carefully or carelessly? Are we recognizing that this is a book whose record is permanent and seen by more than just ourselves?

Paul said that our “very lives are a letter that anyone can read…Christ Himself wrote it — not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives — and we publish it.” (2 Cor 3:2-3 MSG)

When Rob and I went to the Mediterranean on our honeymoon, we were able to visit the gorgeous cliffside town of Amalfi, Italy. In the town, there was a paper store that had been owned for generations by the same family. They used their paper in stunning stationary, and leather-bound journals. One of our souvenir splurges on the trip was a journal from the shop. It is such a special book that it has been hard to commit to what we will write. When we do write in it, we make sure the penmanship is pristine, and is our very best.

If we are so careful with a book that has no eternal value, how much more thought, consideration, and deliberate intention should we put into the book that is our very lives?

How do we do that? A good start is by obeying the word, and living daily with the purpose to please God, which is the fear of the Lord. Malachi 3:16 reads that “those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In His presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared Him and always thought about the honor of His name.” (NLT)

Proverbs admonishes: “Keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Prov 7:1-3 ESV)

What are you saying? What is your life saying? Is it something that could be recorded in God’s presence? Is it something you could live with forever, penned in stone?

Are you ok with what your life has written? Can you recognize your writing?

When you honestly examine your life, you may see writing there that you did not intend to be read for eternity. There may be words you have spoken in anger or gossip that you would not care for anyone to ever read — ever! You may even look and realize that you can’t recognize the pages, compared to what your original dreams and desires may have once been.

It’s easy to begin again today. The wonderful thing about the Bible is it is full of people who changed their stories. God doesn’t care about the story of yesterday if you are willing to make a change and go with Him into today and tomorrow.

Isaiah 43:25 says “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remember your sins no more (NIV).”

We all must give an account of what our lives have written (Rom 14:12). Romans 14:13 goes on to say not to worry about anyone else’s life; only our own. If you need a fresh start, don’t wait, that we may all go together boldly before His wonderful throne with no fear on that glorious day.