Soul Care

"Allowing service for Christ to steal our devotion to him is a radical failure in personal soul care. But it is one from which the practice of communing with Christ in times of solitude and silence can deliver us."


How many times have we gotten to the place where we are absolutely empty, poured out, exhausted...and how many times have we found that the rest and refreshment of a three day spiritual retreat, where we have a private room and time to take a nap, walk in a natural setting, read our Bibles, and simply be silent and alone with the Lord has completely restored us?

Silence, Solitude, and Time are essential to our soul care.

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Soul Rest

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. Psalm 23


It’s stressing over outcomes that makes me nuts. This is not the spiritual life. The spiritual life involves surrendering all outcomes to Jesus, drawing close, listening to his Spirit to follow his leading, and doing my best but not with a compulsive, obsessed, “driven to prove myself” mentality.

This is quite a challenge when you are being held accountable for results and you really can fail, lose funding, lose your job.

“The Lord is my shepherd.” He is the one who provides. He is the one who makes me lie down and rest secure. He is the one who nourishes and refreshes and leads the way. He is the one who restores my soul. He is the one who guards me from evil and takes away all my fear because I know he is right there beside me, able to protect me. He is the one who vindicates me in the presence of my enemies and honors me and blesses me. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Soul rest is possible because I learn from Scripture that the criteria for success in Jesus’ kingdom is not the outcome I’m striving for. That’s the world’s measure. Success in God’s kingdom is defined by God and is based on our love for him and others, our dependence and humility before him, our fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When we live in the kingdom of God we can lighten up, have fun doing our best, because we have been set free from having to prove our worth by producing results. God wants our hearts and he’ll produce success according to his measure. He may even have us fail in order to form our character in the crucible of suffering and difficulties. So rest.

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Spiritual Gluttony

Rest rekindles the fire.


There is such a thing as “spiritual gluttony” – when we compulsively want more and more spiritually. The compulsion to do more ministry, glean more insight, meet with more people, pray longer, give more, sleep less. Passion that morphs into an obsession can ruin us.

On a regular basis, we need to stop and take a true Sabbath’s rest. If we don’t, we can become spiritual gluttons. Passion everyday can squelch our passion. Lay down everything you are doing and stop all of your mental activity and truly rest.

Rest rekindles the fire.

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Restore My Soul

“There is no grander sight in the world than that of a person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim.” Orison Swett Marden


Let God use all that he’s created to nurture my soul and speak to my heart. He is good, he cares for me, and loves me, and welcomes me into his kingdom through the passion of his Son. Everything leads me to him. He is restoring my soul.

Two weeks outdoors to be immersed in the beauty of nature has the same soul-restoring effect as a silent retreat. It draws me out of the world of hurry, and struggle, and decisions and draws me into God’s world of peace, and joy, and rest.

Lord, may you use these days to restore my soul. Light me on fire by the work of your Spirit that I’ll return home dominated by one unwavering aim to love you with my heart, mind, soul, and strength every day. I desire to be fired with a great purpose, that your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

 

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Rest - A Day to Disengage

“Foolish out of measure is he who attendeth upon other things rather than those which serve the soul’s health.”


I had been intense all month, mentally considering ideas, reading, writing, meeting with people. On Thursday, I was exhausted and I felt on Friday that in order to continue wanting to be in pursuit of God, I needed a break, a day to totally disengage. I didn’t read anything. I didn’t turn on my computer. Instead, Kevin and I enjoyed a day outside. We took the light rail downtown and walked to the Rose Garden. A great day, enjoying being outside, with Kevin, mentally disengaged from ministry so that I could re-engage with enthusiasm tomorrow.

I’m learning that for me to stay hot, I must disengage at times. Passionate living can leave me mentally exhausted and a day off can be so refreshing that I wake up the next day desiring to re-engage.

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Solitude, Silence and Rest

“We need to be sure HE is pulling the load, bearing the burden—which we are all too ready to assume is up to us alone. We must understand that He is in charge of the outcome of our efforts, and that the outcome will be good, right. And all of this is encompassed in one biblical term, “Sabbath.”


Practicing solitude, silence and fasting are especially helpful in resting. It's practicing silence and solitude on retreat that not only provides a deep sense of rest while we are on retreat, but also then enables us to enter into that place of rest even in the midst of a very busy life back home.

Living with an attitude of total rest in God will not happen automatically. We must practice laying everything down and walking away from it. We have to practice not talking. We have to practice silencing the inner noise. I love that at The Springs retreat we have opportunity to learn how to leave behind all of our work and how to quiet all of the noise so that we can truly enter into God's rest.

The challenge is to not bring our work with us when we go on a spiritual retreat. It's tempting to think that we'll use the time to write an article or complete our Bible study. If we do this, true solitude and rest will not be found. We have to get away from our work to rest.

Take an afternoon to walk the trails. Take an hour to reflect on the beauty of a wildflower or listen to the birds. Take some time to just sit in a chair and look at the valley and be open to the Lord. Just be with Him. It can be quite a shock for those of us who are so busy doing ministry to come away in order to just be with the Lord. But once we've practiced solitude and silence, they become the most precious times for us...and truly, we can learn to bring the blessedness of that rest into our busy lives.

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Grateful Beyond Words

The Springs retreat is simply a tool, a powerful tool that the Lord uses to draw us into His heart of love.

The Springs is a time to come away and spend time with Him, in a safe place with trusted women, with everything focused on the Lord. The Springs creates an environment for God's transforming love. There have been times that I've gone to the Springs, and simply needed physical rest, and a refocusing on the Lord through worship and His word. He knows us so intimately, knows our needs better than we do, and He alone is able to truly meet those needs.

And although the Springs is an actual event, the principles it has taught me go far beyond the time spent there. I now know that I must be intentional in setting aside times to completely focus on the Lord, to come before Him just as I am, to love Him and experience His love for me. Aside from daily devotional times, Bible studies, and prayer, there is something unique in making a time to completely and simply be in His presence.

As I write this, I'm taking a day to simply rest and be refreshed by the Lord. The past weeks have been a whirlwind of busyness, and I knew He was calling me to a day of rest. Once again, He has met me in a way that I don't think is possible without coming apart for a time alone.

I am grateful beyond words for the ministry of the Springs. Thank You, Lord.

(sent to Luann by a retreat past retreat participant)

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Restore my soul

"Allowing service for Christ to steal our devotion to him is a radical failure in personal soul care. But it is one from which the practice of communing with Christ in times of solitude and silence can deliver us."(Willard, The Great Omission, 130)

How many times have we gotten to the place where we are absolutely empty, poured out, exhausted...and how many times have we found that the rest and refreshment of taking a nap, walking in a natural setting, reading our Bibles, and simply being silent and alone with the Lord has completely restored us? Every single time.

Silence, Solitude, and Time are our best friends...they are essential to our soul care.

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul.” Psalm 23

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Rest

One of the gifts of The Springs is time to take a nap. It's usually one of the first things I do.

I may want to jump right into a time of prayer or Bible reading, but if I’m too tired, I can’t concentrate, I can’t reflect or think deeply or keep from nodding off when I close my eyes. What I need is a nap.

It's wonderful to have my own room so I can lay down and get the sleep my body needs. And that's OK!

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