(Photo Creds: My own)
(Rewind: This post comes from last March’s blog after a conference. One of the speakers recommended this exercise, which I’m still convinced has served me well and bears repeating!)
So, HOW IS YOUR SOUL? I mean how are you doing? (And not the “I’m fine. It’s all good.” answer we give in the corridors of life.)
Are you truly happy? Joyful?
Are you empty or sad? Have you or a loved one had a loss of some kind?
Are you afraid of the next season of life? Confident and ready to take it on?
Are you content, and wish you had more desire to “change the world?”
Well, I’m not sure yet because I haven’t done the exercise, but my gut reaction is that it is a combination of the above. I love this idea of doing a literal check-in or check up, for my medical friends, with your soul. To write it out and and ask why or why not, and develop some steps to move closer to where you want to be. I think it would be a fun “task” to do with someone that knows you really well.
This blog seems to always lean toward this concept of improving in how we serve. Serving ourselves and others well is critical to our ultimate happiness and ability to live out God’s purpose. He is quite clear that we are here on this planet, in this very zip code, to serve others and shine a light to make the world a better place than we found it. We do this with each daily decision and action. The cumulative result is a life fully lived.
I encourage you to walk through this “check in/up” and in the process, give God praise for both the joy and the pain and to seek his word as a guide to help you close the gaps in the areas that need some attention. The truth found in Galatians 5 has always been one of my favorites:
“But the fruit of the Spirit (what God desires for us), is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control…” (22-23 NIV)
Anything else is not his desire for us and not our destiny. We therefore need to understand those are not his will and ask him to show us the truth and walk toward that! As always, I’m cheering you on!