Soul Care Part 1: Reviving Your SoulПримерок

What is soul care?

Self-care is a buzzword right now. You can get self-care by going to the gym, or going to the spa, or going to bed earlier, but you can only get soul care by going to Jesus. It involves arranging your life in sacred rhythms.

“Your life is simply the by-product of your lifestyle. By ‘lifestyle’ I mean the rhythms and routines that make up your day-to-day existence. The way you organize your time. Spend your money. Leverage your energy.” -- John Mark Comer

Every system is perfectly designed to get the exact results it is getting. It’s not just true of HR best practices and assembly lines, but it’s also true of your life. If the results you are getting with your life are lousy — anxiety is at a constant simmer, mild depression is a close friend, high levels of stress, chronic emotional burnout, toxic relationships, little to no sense of the presence of God — then the odds are good that there is something about the system of your life that is off-kilter. The rhythms and routines are wrong.

Take inventory and examine the way you’ve organized your morning or evening, your schedule, your budget, your relationship with your phone. How you manage your resources of time, money and attention is paramount.

You must arrange your days so that you’re experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your everyday life with God. – Dallas Willard

Your soul will be revived as you learn to live your life WITH God.

Ask Yourself:

- How is my soul? (Think of a word or phrase, an image, or a scale of 1-10)

- How have I contributed to the state of my soul in good ways and bad ways?

Pause to Pray:

God, my soul is thirsty, and I know I need you…

Take a Next Step:

- Take inventory of your current weekly rhythms. Reflect on last week. On what things did you spend your time and energy? Write these down. Now look ahead to the week in front of you. Where do you want to make changes? Consider adding one spiritual priority to each day and deleting one soul crusher.