It’s been a great joy and privilege to watch FPC grow in our understanding of our souls. During the Christmas season, our church was exposed to John Ortberg’s Soul Keeping, which I found to be one of the most important and helpful books of 2014. As a result of reading and studying what the Bible has to say about our souls, many of us felt more in-tune with God, more in-touch with others, and more aware of Jesus’ unique ability to care for people at the deepest level. I’d like to share one particular story of a person experiencing deeper levels of soul-care as a result of our study of Soul Keeping.
Moms make incredible scarifies for
their children. One mom at FPC - who had
been working full-time for many years while raising her kids – took on an
evening part-time job to help offset the cost of college tuition for her
children. As you can imagine, the stress
of being pulled between the two jobs, as well as her family life, was tremendous. During the study of Soul Keeping, this mom decided to quit her part-time job, saying
“no” to financial benefits so that she can focus more time on caring for her
soul. What a courageous and
soul-fulfilling decision!
In my own life, Soul Keeping helped me better prioritize
activities which I know are essential for caring for my soul: prayer and
Scripture reading each morning, exercise, and unstructured time with my
family. By “better prioritize,” I don’t
mean making a rigid schedule to fence-in those activities. Instead (and this is especially true in the
up-and-down reality of life with young kids), I mean making those activities
happen whenever they can, and for whatever duration I can, while keeping Christ
as the focus.
One more personal result: because
of reading Soul Keeping, I’ve
rediscovered a practice familiar to many people for many years. This practice was applied heavily on
Christmas Eve, when I was able to share God’s Word with a lot of people at each
of our wonderful services. All
throughout that amazing evening – and as often as I can each day – I made a
decision to stop the motion of my body, pause, and kneel. I knelt all
throughout Christmas Eve, whenever the thought struck me to do so. I kneel when I come into
my office in the morning. And what does
the kneeling “do” for me? Well, it gives
me the opportunity to remember that I’m not in charge – King Jesus is. I’m not alone – King Jesus is with me. And the King is always worthy of His people
kneeling before Him.
May 2015 be a year marked by
continual kneeling in your life and mine.
Shalom,
Travis
No comments:
Post a Comment