Soul Care

As I write this we are heading into another week of beautiful weather – assuming that you like it hot and sunny.  It seems like many years since we have had such a sustained spell of good summer weather.  It is rare that we need to use sunscreen in this country and so I forgot when I was out yesterday and am paying the price today.  In weather like this I need to take better care of myself.Self-care is one of those phrases that I keep hearing and reading about these days.  Studies show that people today are working longer hours, processing more information and sleeping less than in previous generations.  In response, in our increasingly busy and pressured society, many agencies are encouraging us to take better care of ourselves. In our recent course on Living Well, we explored many different ideas and techniques to help us in building our Physical, Mental, Emotional, Relational and Spiritual resilience.  Whilst the first four of those are mainly about caring for our ‘selves’ the last one is distinctively about caring for our soul.What is our soul?It can be hard to define the soul, but sometimes we have moments when we recognize it, even if we can’t define it.

Sometimes we experience awe in the beauty we see in nature, in the miracle of a new born child, in the surge of love that we can feel for those we are closest to.  In those moments we experience a combination of love, joy, humility and awe.  We experience something even deeper than the joy we might feel when our national football team puts six goals past their opponents 😊 Sometimes we experience deep hurt through the betrayal of someone close to us, or through the grief of losing someone we love.  These wounds can go deeper than just our emotions, they seem to go to the core of who we are and leave us feeling lost and helpless.There is a depth in those moments of love, joy, or sadness where we sometimes catch a glimpse of our souls.Dallas Willard wrote that what marks our existence is this tiny, fragile, vulnerable, precious thing about us, called our soul.  He says, ‘You are not just a ‘self’; you are a soul.’In his book, ‘Soul Keeping’, John Ortberg explains that we don’t need to be a Christian and believe in the Bible to recognise the importance of the soul.  We don’t have to look far in the world, or on TV, to see people that are focussed unhealthily on the ‘self’, but in other ways seem shallow and lost.  When we pause and wait and look within ourselves then we can get the sense that we are more than just a ‘self’.  We live in a world where many people are obsessed with the self and often neglect the soul.Ortberg says that our soul connects our thoughts, our sensations, our emotions and our will, and integrates them into a whole being.  If our lives are not integrated in this way, then no matter how much we succeed, in whatever our job or profession (including vicars), then no circumstance can bring us lasting joy.   This is what Jesus meant when he said, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Matt 16:26 – NIV).   He was not saying that being rich and successful means you are going to hell.  He was saying that, no matter what we do in life, caring for our souls needs to be a priority.But how do we care for our souls?  How do we heal our soul’s hurts? How do we feed our souls?

I think that these are some of the questions that many religions around the world have been exploring through the centuries.  The Edgehill Churches run courses like ‘Alpha’ and ‘Soul Keeping’ to help people look into the Christian faith and explore ways of caring for their souls.  Our next Alpha course will be starting on Tuesday 2nd October.  You are welcome to join us. Rev Barry Jackson