Ana Avila, a Guatemala-based Christian writer and clinical biochemist, discovered the joy of handwriting as a way to get closer to God after hearing of the practice on an episode of John Piper’s podcast “Ask Pastor John.”

Taking up the story on a call with me from her home in Guatemala City, Ana remembers;

“He answered a question a listener had on how to understand and apply more of what they read in the Bible, by encouraging them to slow down. He used a metaphor, saying reading the Bible is like being welcomed into a rose garden with all these beautiful roses, and while you say you want to smell them and enjoy them and get the beauty out of them, instead you're just rushing through the garden.“

“To truly enjoy the roses, you have to force yourself to stop and slow down…and the best way to do that is to write out the text.”

This advice (which you can listen to in full here) seemed perfectly aimed at Ana, who, by her own admission, has “always been the handwriting type.” “It’s very natural for me. I just love writing”

Stopping to smell the roses

Ana’s dedication to slowing down and using handwriting to inform and deepen her devotions is even more impressive when she lists out her many roles at home and at work. 

Combining her work as a pastor’s wife and mother of two boys with being a senior writer for Coalición por el Evangelio (The Gospel Coalition) and a consulting scholar for Blueprint 1543, (which aims to bring scientific inquiry and Christian thought together,) she hosts a weekly podcast and runs an online devotional community. 

It comes as no surprise then that she is also the author of Make the Most of Your Productivity: A Guide to Honoring God With Your Time.

I first heard of Ana when a number of our subscribers forwarded me her recent article entitled Why I Transcribe the Bible During My Quiet Time published on The Gospel Coalition website.

She kindly agreed to interrupt her busy schedule for a call with me so I could mine her for advice and wisdom from her experiences of working with God’s word in her own hand.

Writing is reading…only deeper

For Ana, writing the word out is part of her reading practice.

“It's a way for me to read more slowly. I'm a big reader. I love to read. But I know that my heart tends to just go by really fast and not to actually savor the text and try to enjoy, and meditate on every word. So it’s this opportunity to read, but also meditate on what I'm reading, not go too fast.”

For many of us, writing out passages from the Bible helps us stay focused and enriches our reading, but Ana goes further, advising her online community to take the inspiration of writing out the passages to then write them out in their own words as if they had been tasked to explain it in simple terms to someone who was unfamiliar with the passage.

This additional engagement goes beyond simple transcription to working with the word attentively to fully appreciate and comprehend it.

Copying diligently, if not always beautifully

When she’s copying out passages, Ana pays great attention to every word, phrase, and punctuation point to ensure she isn’t being over-familiar or missing a valuable insight. 

“The practice has made me much more aware of how fragile our memory is and how prone to change things we are. With the Bible, we need to be careful of not putting our words in God's mouth. There are verses that you're so familiar with that you feel like you can write them from memory, and then you go back and you look and see you skipped something very important.”

However, this doesn’t mean that her transcriptions are always perfectly beautiful to look at. She chooses to write in ordinary notebooks that double up as prayer journals.

“I usually write in notebooks, which I don’t always keep, which surprises people. To me, the benefit is in the process of writing, not the finished product.”

Writing to God

Since she got serious about Bible transcription, Ana has noticed a marked improvement in her prayer life.

“I like to select a verse or two and highlight it on my Bible and then transcribe it and then write a prayer inspired by that passage below the text I’ve copied. So, I'm both transcribing the Bible and writing my prayers.”

She goes on, “I've had a much more consistent prayer life since I started to write. I now pray in writing all the time. I love it.”

“Writing is very valuable in every step of our Bible study and devotional time. It leads me to listen attentively to the heart of God and also to disclose my troubled heart to him.”

Making Bible transcription a ‘vital’ part of your devotional life

Talking through Ana’s writing process, a couple of things become clear. Handwriting is part of a process of study and meditation. It doesn’t replace reading panoramically across the Bible or diligent Bible study, but helps with drawing you into a closer, more intimate study of given passages.

Copying out these passages isn’t an end in itself, but instead serves the goal of bringing out more depth and meaning from the word while bringing you into a closer relationship with it and with God. 

In the past, we’ve featured many writers who have copied the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. A monumental task requiring exceptionally high levels of discipline and the sacrifice of anywhere from 600- 1000 hours of time over many years. The completion of which can sometimes outweigh the value of simply spending time with God, interacting physically, emotionally, and intellectually with His word.

We don’t have to be on a mission to complete the whole Bible, or even a whole book or chapter to benefit from hand-copying passages.

Ana’s advice to anyone looking to explore and enjoy  this practice is three-fold;

First, commit to spending the time rather than completing the task. She says “I try to make goals of time rather than saying I'm going to finish this whole book by this month or something like that. Rather, I say something like, I'm going to spend 15 minutes every day and just start a timer and see how far it takes me.” 

This allows the “writing-reader” to immerse themselves wherever the spirit leads them.

Second, use the friction inherent in writing time to allow for mental processing, questioning, and curiosity. “I encourage people to circle words or phrases they don’t understand and to take notice of words that are repeated or other unusual features. Don’t just skip the things that you don’t understand; acknowledge them.”

Third, use the writing you are copying as inspiration for your own written prayers and interpretations. As she notes in the linked TGC article, “When we have no words, we can remember that God has given us his words to make them ours and give them back to him.” 

Being comfortable with discomfort

For all the undeniable benefits hand-copying the Bible has not every passage we address is comfortable or enjoyable to copy out. The Bible is full of challenging scenes and discomforting passages. When we read, there is often the temptation just to skip the parts that are harder to grapple with and turn our gaze aside.

To honor it, we have to be prepared to engage with and digest these passages just as much as the more uplifting ones. As Ana notes, “I definitely think I have moments when I sense, “this is awkward.”Like certain songs that seem violent or things like that. But I think the practice of forcing yourself to face those things is very valuable.“ 

“It prompts me to ask questions about myself and about God and ask why I feel this uncomfortable.” 

“And what I love about God is that you can bring all that to him. He knows how you're being made to feel. God is with me while I'm writing down the Bible, and I can just come to God with all my questions and all the uncomfortableness of it.”

If you’d like to read more of Ana’s writing you can find links here, and also her book is available on Amazon, here available in English on March 5th.