The Daily Grind with Matt Clarke

Write It Down

Written by Matt Clarke | April 15, 2026

It was humbling and encouraging at the same time. I woke up a few minutes before the already too-early alarm I had set and couldn't go back to sleep. My mind had obviously been awake a while and was screening at the rest of me that it wanted some attention. So after going through my normal paces and knocking out the Wordle and Connections in an attempt to feed my mind a little breakfast, I sat down to read. As I did, I realized I still had a plethora of anxious thoughts, so I picked up my journal and took them captive by writing them down. 

I wrote about decisions that had to be made at work and at home, to-dos I needed to get done, people I was thinking about, meetings to schedule, and a number of significant things that had me twisted and confused. When I was finished, I realized just how much we all have going on at one time. It humbled me because I needed help with a number of things on the list, didn't have answers to all the questions, and had situations with significant implications I was worried about.

With my head now spinning slowly enough to focus on reading, I stumbled across a few clear reminders that offered me encouragement. First, in Isaiah, I read that God is creating a new Heaven and Earth where his people will have a sweet existence. That is something to look forward to! Then, I read in Proverbs that pride comes before destruction, but the humble will be A-OK. Feeling pretty humble, I thought that I was doing pretty well there.

Then I came across the following verse in Romans:

"And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will." (Romans 8:26-27

Thank you! I sometimes have so much going on that I admittedly don't know what to pray for. Everything just seems so important and oftentimes confusing that it is hard to know where to start. But the Holy Spirit knows my heart and God's heart and prays with an intense groaning and pleading for alignment between the two. He silently begs God to give us what we need.

I don't have all the answers or results yet, but I have hope.

I can do a lot with hope, faith, and a little patience. As I sat there in the quiet of the morning, I was able to knock out a number of the smaller immediate things that hit my list so that they were scheduled or handled, and I could move on to bigger rocks without so much distraction.

We all have seasons where arrows are flying at us from every direction, situations feel unbearable, and an overactive mind just screams at the rest of us. We don’t know where to start or what to do. Begin by writing things down. Pray over those things, and if you don't know what to pray for, just look them over and let the Holy Spirit do the work. That process alone will provide you a little mental space to prioritize what is most important and allow you to move some little rocks out of the way. Then ask for help. You can't do it all on your own. Help from others around you and the spirit within you, even if you don't know what to ask for or are overwhelmed by it all, have hope in knowing that the Holy Spirit is way ahead of you and is just waiting for you to catch up.  
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