A Center for the Soul

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The Psalmist cries out, “Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why are you disturbed within me?” (Ps. 42:5) Another translation puts it this way: “How collapsed you are my soul, and how you sigh over me.”  Pastor John Ortberg writes in his book, Soul Keeping, “A soul without a center is like a house built over a sinkhole … On the other hand, the soul comes alive when it is centered on God.  ‘Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love... for to You I lift up my soul.’”

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A certain man tells of how his 3-year-old son used to approach him when he was tired or frightened or just needed to be held.  The little guy would reach out with his arms and say, “Hodja, Daddy. Hodja” – his 3-year-old version of “Hold me, Daddy.”  Years later, his son, now a grown man in his thirties, came home from work and discovered his wife had left him for another man. He was devastated and called his dad and asked if he could come over. Of course he could, so he drove the five hours to his parents’ home, walked in the door, and collapsed into his father’s arms. The father later said, “I could almost hear him crying, ‘Hodja, Daddy. Hodja.’”

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When we reach out to God, we are lifting our souls up to be nurtured and healed.  A soul centered in God always knows it has a heavenly Father who will hold its pain, its fear, its anxiety.  Ortberg lays it out for us, “This is spiritual life: To place the soul each moment in the presence and care of God.”  The Psalmist proclaims the need to do just that: “My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.”

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It is much harder than it sounds to keep our souls centered on God. We hold on tightly, but often to the wrong things.  But staying centered on God – His Word, His ways – is the essence of life for the soul. Thomas Kelly wrote, “We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all. We are unhappy, uneasy, strained, oppressed, and fearful that we shall be shallow ... We have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.  If only we could slip over into that Center! We have seen and known some people who have found this deep Center of living …”

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“My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me.” When God seems distant, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God?” (Ps. 42:2)  Brother Lawrence called this: “Practicing the presence of God,” and the most important part of that practice lay in “renouncing, once and for all, whatever does not lead to God.”

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Ortberg suggests that a very simple way to guard your soul is to ask yourself, “Will this situation block my soul’s connection to God?”  As we begin living this question, we find how little power the world has over our soul. “What if I don’t get a promotion, or my boss doesn’t like me, or I have financial problems, or I have a bad hair day?”  Yes, these may cause disappointment, but do they have any power over my soul?  Can they nudge my soul from its center, which is the very heart of God? When you think about it that way, you realize that external circumstances cannot keep you from being with God.  If anything, they draw you closer to Him.

 

                                                                                                        One crying out, “Hold me, Daddy”

                                                                                                        Pastor Chris