Soul Care for Weak Places

Haven’t blogged in a while due to vacation and other assorted events, but that’s good because it gives me time to think which can do one of three things:

1. Generate a really great thought.
2. Generate so many thoughts that I can’t pick one and so I have to write something with a numbered list in it (how awful!)
3. Generate no momentum or energy and so I end up writing something short and somewhat meaningless.

Let’s hope #1 has happened. Then again, you aren’t paying to read this so if it’s bad then you can always read Brian’s blog.

Truth be told I’ve been thinking about a lot of things, but the one thing that is stirring in me today is something I read this morning from Sam Rima’s Leading From the Inside Out:

“The true quality and nature of our leadership will ultimately be determined by the condition of our inner life, which, in turn, is the product of the degree to which we do or do not engage in effective personal soul care.” (130)

Please don’t get lost in the “leadership” language – I’ve seen this be an issue for all kinds of folks whether they are in leadership or not. The reality is that all of us are in trouble if we don’t know the places where our inner life needs work.

I’m a strong believer in the fact that if you don’t know where you’re vulnerable, you won’t know where you can be defeated. I ask couples who come to me for pre-marital counseling “What would have to happen to cause you to leave this relationship?”

FYI – to a person they all say infidelity, but the stats on why marriages end speak differently and most say that the #1 reason marriages end is because of communication but perhaps that’s another post…

So, here’s a thought: if we know our spiritual weakness, we need to address it. We need to do some personal “soul care.”

If your spouse came to you and said “Our communication has to get better or we’re going to have to get divorced” my hope would be that you’d get every book on communication in marriage possible. You now know your vulnerability, time to sure it up.

If we know that one of our soul’s greatest weaknesses is pride, we need to do something about that.

If we know that our soul is prone to ignore hard conversations, we need to do something about that.

If we know our soul has trouble trusting God in real, daily situations then we need to do something about that.

God’s grace will give us the strength to do this – it isn’t all on us to do the heavy lifting – but we need to acknowledge that there are some places needing work. Soul care is simply bringing habits into our life to give God the leverage and space to strengthen weak spiritual muscles we may have.

Today, what if you took some time and sat down with a piece of paper and wrote down the places where you feel you’re vulnerable and are in need of soul care?

I did it this morning.

It was really good and now I’m thinking through a plan to deal with those areas.

Want some strength in your soul?