Every now and then, when providing spiritual direction, questions of the soul would surface. Questions like what is the soul? Where is the soul? Do I even have a soul? Although I could have focused on responding to the questions, I often restrained myself. Rather than appear like a guru or a know-it-all, I found it important to start such a dialogue around the care of the soul. It is not that I was ignoring or avoiding basic questions, rather I was directing the person to experience and discover the soul at a personal level. Then we can talk.
In other words, conversations of the soul are not necessarily an intellectual or a psychological pursuit. A person’s faith and their language of God is a place and space where it is important to begin. It allows for common ground and a trust that together we are not covering certain topics which can simply be checked-off and then move on, but of greater significance, we are uncovering together a relationship with God who, “will fully satisfy every need of [ours] according to his riches in glory in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 4:19).
So, I start with the care of the soul. Here again, the question often is, how can I care for the soul if I don’t even know where, what, or even if there is a soul? My one- word answer is: pray. Go home and pray. Pray to God about your soul and the place the soul has in your life. Go to the Bible as you pray and look-up psalms or sayings of Jesus regarding the soul.
The soul contains our prayer life. As we pray, we care for the soul. As we care for the soul, we pray. Notice how the two go hand-in-hand. Without going into great detail, often we refer to prayer as communication with God. The difficulty with this description of prayer is it makes communication the answer to prayer. I prayed. I communicated. So what?
Prayer, standing outside the soul, can simply be a good idea. It can be a feeling. It can be a wish. One person told me she was praying for a parking spot and suddenly an empty space appeared. She informed me God answered her prayers. Seriously. Do you honestly think Almighty God is really interested in a parking lot?
The reason why I encourage prayer as a matter of caring for the soul is the soul is the gateway for the mind, heart, and will to enter into a relationship with God. It is the soul that relates to God. The soul finds work in prayer. You know, once we pray, the prayer is not over. It is handed over to God by the soul. Take care of the soul by prayer.
We are off to Scotland as I write, and I look forward with others from Christ Church, Louisville, to follow in the steps of the Celtic Christians in their life with God. No doubt, it will be a life filled with prayer and the care of the soul leading the way.
