Don't Do it for the 'Gram
Oh, look, another person who letters scripture for the ‘gram!
Yes and no. About two years ago I started writing passages and verses in creative ways—I used purple pens, I drew bad swirly lines, I capitalized some words, and I arranged words into nonsensical sections. By the end, I would step back and be like “Wow, I can’t read this at all, but that sure was an experience.”
I wasn’t kidding. It was convoluted as heck.
At the time that I’d started this practice, it was because there was deep turmoil in my soul. I was constantly sad and distressed. Writing out scripture in weird ways was the only way I knew how to force some truth into dark mind spaces.
The beauty of writing scripture is that it sticks differently. You read it. Then you think it. Then you turn to paper and start to write it. Your hand feels it. Your eyes see it. Your thoughts echo it. And then you forget how the sentence ends. What’s the next word? What’s the complete thought? You turn back. You read it again. You think it again. You start to write—and, oh gosh, something clicks!
But even more so, there’s a beauty to writing Scripture creatively and messily. When you think “how do I express this verse?” you engage with the words differently. You start to notice which words stir you, which images come alive, and which opposites challenge you. You start to feel and experience, and the Bible has become all but that stale book you’ve been trying to force yourself to ingest for days now.
But now—here comes the trick! Don’t write scripture only because you want it to look pretty. Yes, aim to write with some creativity and imagination, but it doesn’t need to be social-media certifiable. Write scripture for the purpose of knowing the Lord intimately, because if you focus only on public or even self-approval, you’ll have missed the point! Let the heart-breaking words be written ugly, let the hopeful words be written beautifully, let scribbly arrows connect distant but related thoughts. The process of writing with emotional, imaginative messiness is for truth to reach not just your head, but also your heart.
A lot has changed in two years, but I still regularly practice scripture-writing. The process is prettier now—occasionally Instagrammable, even—but the reason I love this practice is the same! When my mind is stuck in stubborn patterns, when my heart is harder than usual, when reading and taking notes is no longer enough, when I’m swept away by the Lord’s love and want more, I write scripture.
And if you’re finding yourself in any of those places, I encourage you to give it a try. And please, don’t think too hard. Just pick something that resonates, take a big ol’ blank piece of paper, and be messy!
