Archive for Soul Care
Why You Must Go Back
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God’s ways are mysterious, beyond my understanding and often seem downright contradictory. While in my humanity, I prefer to think in straight lines which lend themselves to defining a goal as completed, a task marked off, I find that God’s ways are usually not pictured best by straight lines. They are paths which appear, at times, intertwined, difficult to map out, going forward, then backward, orbiting around a center, and often perplexing my human mind. The longer I walk with God, the more clearly I see that He is truly not confined to my limited understanding. He is working, often His deepest purposes in me, when I am clueless.
This week, I was meditating on two of the seemingly contradictory ways of God. In the next few days, I want to explore these two thoughts:
1. You must go back.
2. You can never go back.
Huh? Sounds confusing? I hope you are intrigued sufficiently to continue reading for both statements are true and I am not being ambivalent. There are times in life when you must absolutely go back. You must go back, as it were, in your mind, your emotions, your relationships, to moments of the past and experience the moments again. There are some very important reasons for us to go back. And in other ways, we must never go back and in fact, cannot do so, but that is for another day this week.
Doing Life Differently
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are in the wrong place in your life, there is only one way to get back to the right place and that is through repentance.
Two years ago, my husband and I found ourselves in the wrong place and have since experienced many life changes brought about through repentance. One of the things we have committed to in order to continue these changes is annually setting aside a week for self-evaluation and input from a Christian counselor. Last week, we spent four days in Denver, Colorado, with Michael Cusick, founder and president of Restoring the Soul Ministries, a ministry dedicated to providing life-changing soul care for Christian leaders.
While I was spending some moments evaluating my relationship with God, others, and my own heart, Michael shared his definition of repentance with me – doing life differently. Although the definition contained the essence of other ways that I had defined repentance throughout the years, it struck a chord of new understanding inside my heart. For me, the definition provided a way for me to evaluate my life in relation to repentance. At that moment and for the days following, I have been looking at my life and asking myself, “Where are the ways that I can say I am doing my life differently? Where is there evidence that I have changed?”
Many times I have “repented”. I have asked for God’s forgiveness for my actions, attitudes, and words. But how many times have I continued in the same patterns? How often has there been no tangible evidence of change in my life?
The Inner Journey
Posted by: | CommentsIn his journey to list the seasons of life, the writer of Ecclesiastes throws this one in…
There is a time to kill and a time to heal. Ecclesiastes 3:3
Got Any Root Issues?
Posted by: | Comments"You need a root canal."
Those words led me to the endodontist. And the news got better from there. “You need two root canals, if we are able to save one of these teeth; if not, we will only do one root canal and you’ll have to have the other tooth pulled.”
Have you ever started a day better? I mean it just doesn’t get any better. You get to practice your “In everything give thanks” skills and “Pray without ceasing”, and “My God shall provide all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” all at the same time. Spiritual aerobics and weight training at the same time.
Well, I jest of course, but nonetheless it wasn’t the grandest of news. But Romans 8:28 quickly kicked in as I sat in the endodontist’s chair. Now I clarify for any of you who would feel religious at this moment: IT WAS NOT GOOD! (Although Dr. Smith was himself delightful but seriously needs a new joke book.) But it was working for my good, not the least of which is the free material I gained for this blog.
First, they gave me two injections and allowed me to “marinate”. Then they turned me upside down, literally, and then prized my mouth open for an hour or more. So aside from that and the wonderful numbness that persists even now, it was all and all a good experience.
