Discovering the Best Ways to Care for Your Internal Life
Have you ever had those moments when idea A connects with concept B, which connects to random thought C, which when you add them all together leads you to consider XYZ? I’ve decided that’s how God works some days.
I get these ideas, then I read a random article and I’m stunned by how they fit together. Or I read a particular scripture in my morning quiet time deciding it’s teaching a particular lesson, later, after experiencing some event in my day, I begin to think of the verses I studied earlier with a fresh perspective.
When Isaiah said, “Truly, O God of Israel, our Savior, you work in mysterious ways.” he wasn’t kidding! (Isaiah 45:15)
Connecting A to B to C
Such a scenario happened to me just the other day. I was reviewing the book Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg for this blog. As I glanced through the Foreword by Dr. Henry Cloud, the idea of developing one’s internal life captured my attention.
I’m in the middle of a book study of Jennie Allen’s book, Anything, with a few ladies. I have been grappling with this idea that we experience God’s glory at points in our lives and then we forget. Life gets busy, we become distracted, and we forget the passion we felt in that moment of truly seeing God’s glory.
My mind began to combine those two ideas with truth I read from John 14:1-18 earlier in the morning. Jesus has just told his disciples one of them will betray Him and Peter will deny Him. Then Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” The Message translation says, “Don’t let this rattle you.”
Consider XYZ
Stick with me here: God knows when hard things are coming. He also knows when we are going to fail. He isn’t surprised by the internal battle that wages, or our ability to forget what we really should remember. Jesus’ message to us is don’t allow what is going and/or how we are feeling to rattle us. And just like He told the disciples, Jesus tells us to keep trusting God.
I know when I experience failure my internal life becomes a mess. When life is hard, too often I respond just like Jennie Allen describes in her book and I forget how God has revealed Himself, how God has poured His love into me, how God has accepted me as sinful as I am and declared me chosen, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12). My soul needs to hear Christ saying, “keep trusting me.”
John Ortberg’s book, Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You, is a fantastic resource to help you uncover what keeps you from hearing Christ’s words of encouragement and hope.
Soul Keeping by John Ortberg
Why This Book
When I decided to recommend books to you this month, I knew from the beginning I would choose this book. I’ve read it several times; it is deep and powerful. The first time I finished the book, I immediately started again hoping I would better grasp various ideas that I struggled to assimilate into my normal pattern of thinking.
The idea of the soul is difficult. We all define it a bit differently and use it in such general terms that being certain of what it really means is like nailing Jell-O to a wall. Ortberg writes this book because of lessons he learned from Dallas Willard, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, American Philosopher, and a deep lover of Jesus.
Start at the Beginning
The book begins with a prologue where Ortberg tells the story of a stream keeper in the high alps. The stream keeper was an elderly man who kept the beginnings of a stream clear from debris and pollution. His job provided clean water for a town further downstream. As the story goes the town decides they can’t afford the stream keeper anymore, so he leaves his post. I’m sure you can guess what happened. The town discovered they needed the stream keeper; their quality of life was severely affected when the stream keeper wasn’t working.
“The life of a village depended on the health of the stream. The stream is your soul. And you are the keeper.”
John Ortberg. Soul Keeper. page 9
Section I: What the Soul Is
Ortberg divides the book into three sections. In the first section, Ortberg defines the concept of the soul. He provides a diagram to help his reader understand the connection between ones’ soul, body, mind and will. I will tell you it’s a bit mind-boggling to try to grasp the depth of creativity God used in the way He made us.
Section II: What the Soul Needs
The second section of the book is about what the soul needs. Ortberg states “… it is the nature of the soul to need.” He goes on to say, “Your soul is vulnerable because it is needy. If you meet these needs with the wrong things, game over. Or at least, game not going well.”
The second section contains 10 chapters. One chapter helping the reader understand this idea that the soul is needy. Ortberg then writes nine chapters covering nine different things the soul needs. These chapters are not long, and Ortberg relates back to his original stream keeper story as well as anchoring everything in a strong Biblical foundation.
Section III: The Soul Restored
The closing section is “The Soul Restored.” Ortberg recognizes that delving into one’s internal life is never easy. Searching our depths and truly recognizing our need is not always a joyful journey. And we are each the keeper of our soul.
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
A moment of honesty. I want to happily recommend this book and then leave it be. I cannot. Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You is not an easy book. It challenged me to think deep and wide. It pushed the boundaries of how I perceived God, my relationship with Him, and how I envisioned my life as I served Him.
And it’s a fabulous book.
It’s time for me to read Soul Keeping again. My internal life isn’t a mess; I’ve been doing my best to keep my soul stream clear of debris and pollution. And God is speaking to my depths in ways that I can’t yet define. Reminding myself of the truths Ortberg lays out in this book will be good for the caring of my internal life.
God’s Mysterious Ways
It is not accidental that God led me to review books this month. I believe God has been leading very clearly over the last 28 days: in what to write for my blog, as well as my Instagram and Facebook posts. God’s ways are truly mysterious and absolutely wonderous. I trust God has moved in your life just as He has moved in mine.
“Our soul is like a stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and in exuberant in all we do because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God and His kingdom.”
Dallas Willard
Amen and amen.
Photo of Girl by Fa Barboza on Unsplash
