Green Pastures and Still Waters
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John Ortberg’s book titled, “Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You” is an important book that will not be read by many. Very few people in our culture care about their soul. Virtually everybody cares about their body. The symptoms of a sick soul are many but one of the main ones is the inability to care for anybody else. If the soul is unhealthy, all a person does is look for ways to help himself. He’s too sick to have a mind and heart for others. Sometimes we call this narcissism but maybe that sick preoccupation with oneself is really a symptom of an unhealthy soul. An unhealthy soul is the result of neglect. When we neglect the One who made us, His provision for us, His statements about us and practices that yield inner health we have no one to blame but ourselves. Often the neglect is blamed on our pace of life. We should remember that the hurried life is a choice. Being busy is normal, being hurried is a self-induced affliction. In Ortberg’s book, he tells the story of seeking counsel from his mentor. His mentor told him that the first thing he needed to do to Can anybody really do that? What would your life look like in 2015 if your soul was flourishing rather than shriveling from neglect? Maybe you are already aware of your need or maybe you are already flourishing. I shouldn’t presume that the reader is not caring for his/her soul. That’s partly an occupational hazard. My “sample” is a bit limited. I usually don’t see people with flourishing souls in my study. I usually see people whose souls are in serious disrepair. Part of my role as a pastor is to help people learn how to come to the Shepherd who “restores our soul” as the 23rd Psalm so beautifully describes. But, soul restoration will not happen simply by saying, “Oh Shepherd, restore my soul!” It will be preceded by green pastures and still waters. We rearrange our lives to do whatever we really want to do. Could we arrange our lives this year to care for the most important part? We’ll have some suggestions on Sunday for how to do this.
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Our Advent theme this week is “love.” There’s hardly a more wonderful and frustrating subject in the world…with the exception of church music . Like studies on prayer and evangelism, I find studies on love heart-warming, challenging, convicting and frustrating. There is much joy in loving and being loved but love is multi-dimensional. There’s God’s love for us to consider, a love bigger than we can comprehend. Then, there’s our love for God to consider. It is the Great Commandment after all—to love the Lord our God with all our being. Wow, my love for Him is often quite fickle. I’m sure glad His love for me is stronger than death itself. Lastly, and most difficult is our love for one another. Loving other people is hard sometimes, especially if what we are telling people is that they should always feel “loving” toward others. Love includes feelings but sometimes my emotional tank is empty and I don’t feel like I have anything left to give. I even want to care but I find myself unable. That gets compounded with guilt over not caring and then the enemy closes in on my spiritual jugular vein with accusations about what a lousy apprentice I really am. Ever have days like that? Ugh! Maybe what we need is an accurate definition of biblical love and some practical ways that such love really works for human beings. Romans 12:9-21 is (to me) an even more powerful and intimidating description of biblical love than the one in 1 Corinthians 13. I realize that what the Spirit has given us there is beyond us without His help. We must have His assistance or we are incapable of that kind of love. Even when we understand love and try to give and receive love as a reflection of Him, we are going to have some frustrations with this. We are, after all, human beings with finite minds, views and abilities. I don’t believe that God has asked us for something we are incapable of doing. I believe every human being has the capacity to receive God’s love, to love Him in return and to love others as He has described. I pray this last message of Advent will help us understand and continue to improve our love more and more.