Moleskines Unite!
[This goes out to all my fellow Moleskine addicts.]
In his latest sermon, The Peasant Princess: Into the Fields, Mark Driscoll mentioned his affinity for the Moleskine and went in depth on how he uses it to plan and organize his life. Being a Moleskine freak myself, I have found yet another reason to like the guy. This is not good…
The Moleskine and Practical Christian Living:
He gets into it about a third of the way through the sermon. Why such a practical sermon? Listen to the conclusion. Paul says this to Timothy in the New Testament, “Watch your life and your doctrine closely” (1 Tim 4:16 NIV). Too many of us neglect the life piece.
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.751086&w=425&h=350&fv=]
Part of getting saved involves the realization that God has called you into a new way of living. The Lord saves us from our old life of folly and the pursuit of sin into a new life of purpose and meaning, where the wisdom of God is available to us through Jesus. We realize that Jesus has called us to a difficult mission, and at once we are blatantly confronted with our own inadequacy, our own weakness. God calls us to embark on a perilous journey that will demand great fortitude, discipline, organization and perseverance from every part of us, but we’re confronted with the grim reality that we are lazy, disorganized, impulsive, procrastinating, and fickle people. And yet somehow God looks at us and says, “I can use a guy like that.” That amazes me.
God puts us on this earth to do some things, primarily to worship Him, and then to participate in his mission. He uses weak, broken people to do it, because He knows that if these people can accomplish anything for God’s glory, everyone around them will know that God is actively working miracles in people’s lives. God wants His glory, and He uses the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27). The question is how do we respond in faith and organize our lives so as to be effective “instuments in the redeemer’s hands”, sharpened rather than blunt? In my journey with God, I’ve come to realize that journaling is a crucial spiritual discipline that God gives us to connect truth to practical living. The Bible reveals the truth about God to us, we respond in prayer, and journaling is all about writing down the things God is teaching us, identifying the street-level action items, acts of worship, that the Spirit has brought to bear on our hearts. Large sections of the Bible are the personal journal entries of godly men, take for instance the book of Nehemiah.
Now we come to the beauty of the “Pocket Book.” I am convinced that the most effective tool I use to organize my life, and execute on the things God has called me to do, is a simple black pocket book. I carry it with me wherever I go. Some people use PDAs, iPhones, or day planners, but I’m keen on a simple stack of paper and a pen. It allows me to organize my daily activities, make to-do lists, prioritize action items, get my thoughts down on paper, and respond to the Holy Spirit as He imparts things on my heart and mind throughout the day. My all-time favorite pocket book is the Moleskine Volant, which was recently re-released in the US to joyous applause from Moleskine freaks like myself. The extra-small is 2.5 x 4 inches, flexible, thread bound, with acid-free paper and a set of detachable sheets in the back, perfect for loose notes. It’s ideal.
Moleskine Volant
A close second is the Nava Milano “One Year of White Pages”. It’s a set of 12 pocket books, hole-punched to identify each month of the year. Solid.
Nava Milano One Year of White Pages
To learn more about the Moleskine, check out these links:
Moleskine History
Moleskine.com
Moleskinerie
Moleskine: The Ultimate Guide
To learn more about the Moleskine version of the ESV Journaling Bible, check out these links:
Crossway’s ESV Journaling Bible
Monergism Discount
Miscellanies: ESVJB
To learn more about the Moleskine and Personal Productivity, check out these links:
Getting Things Done with a Moleskine
Moleskine PDA
Hacking a GTD Moleskine
Anatomy of a GTD System
The following is a list of blog posts written by a M.Th student at Covenant Theological Seminary regarding personal productivity and getting things done. Parts 3, 4, and 5 speak specifically about how a Moleskine can be used as a personal productivity tool.
GTD Part 1
GTD Part 2
GTD Part 3
GTD Part 4
GTD Part 5
My ideal pocket writing utensil: The Cross Compact Black Fountain Pen.
