Soul Care requires a long, careful, and wise look at our capacity. The myth says, “Capacity doesn’t matter. Just keep going full steam and in fifth gear!” The lie says, “You don’t matter.”
When we are not aware of our capacity, then we neglect our whole life. We forfeit our soul. We breathlessly run our lives on empty.
Read moreLater on in the life of the Apostle Paul, we find him at a crossroads in his work. Faced with an open door of opportunity, that God himself had opened for Paul to walk through, we see Paul saying “NO.” He writes that he would not walk through an open door of opportunity; he said “no” to the opportunity.
Read moreI have taken the time to reflect back on many of the leaders and spouses that Gwen and I have sat with for the past few years. We have sat with mega-pastors, small church pastors, missionaries, global workers, and many market place leaders who are anywhere from small business owners to Fortune 500 executives.
Read moreIn January 2017, I decided to invest an entire year of my life on the journey in discernment. I found myself at a critical crossroad. My work, my marriage, my heart needed attention and care. The future felt looming and did not excite me.
Read more400 years ago, Ignatius of Loyola crafted a genius way of prayer. His method helped a person reflect back upon their day and their life in terms of how one experienced God. He developed a prayer called, The Daily Examen. It is both a challenging and comforting way to trace the movement of God in one’s life.
Read moreI believe the deepest questions of every soul are:
1. Who am I and Why am I here?
2. Who are my people?
3. What are my deepest desires?
4. Why is "this" happening to me?
5. How can I experience inner freedom?
6. What is a love that will last?
7. How can my life become sustainable?
8. What can I do with childhood wounds and deep hurts?
9. How can I learn to forgive and be forgiven?
10. What will heaven by like and how do I get there?
Read moreI am living in a “in-between time.” I have not fully arrived to the next place in my journey. It is a place of ‘betwixt and between.’ It is a hard place. It is a nominal space—a space that native American Indians called, “crazy time.” I understand that. When you live in an “in-between time”-- it feels crazy. Nothing seems to make sense—even God. Such places--such seasons of life can leave us torn, tired and weary. We can feel like something is going to happen--but not yet.
Read moreIt's the morning after a blizzard here in Colorado. It’s winter... not spring; not summer and not the time to do the things one does in the long day’s of summer.
So many of us simply will not embrace the ecclesiastical seasons of our lives. We are told plainly that, "There is a season for everything"...a time for this and a time for that...( Ecc. 3:1)But, many us are still trying to do everything at the same time--and I mean everything now. This leaves us breathless. This leaves us empty. This leaves us exhausted. We simply can't do everything now.
Read moreOne of the great needs in the market place and in the spheres of ministries is for the leaders of both businesses and organizations to have leaders that live an examined life. An examined life is a life where the heart is probed not only for giftedness and abilities but, also for the stuff within that is deeper and mostly unexamined in today’s MBA programs and many divinity schools.
As I've said else where "shine and show" are not fruits of the Spirit and they are not what makes leadership healthy. We sub-comb to "shine and show" when we do not look deeper; when we do not examine the quadrants of the heart of a leader. Looking deeper requires wisdom. Looking deeper requires sage like probing and listening more to what is not said, than what is said explicitly.An examined life is a life that Socrates told us that is a life truly worth living. He said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." And his words apply to leadership. An unexamined leader is dangerous.
Read moreOne of the deepest needs we have as human beings is our need for companionship. It is not good for us to be alone all the time. We were made in the image of God. Being made in God’s image does not mean that we look like God but that we can become like God. We can act like God acts. We can manifest the virtues and qualities that are innate in God’s own being. We become like God when we learn to live a shared life—a life of soul friending.
We live in a world that makes soul friending hard. There’s not enough time to be a friend or have a friend. We are busy trying to survive—to make the ends meet with the threads of our lives that we are trying to bring together. One of the great costs of living in an always on; always available culture is that we neglect the deep needs of the soul—the need to share our lives in meaningful and momentous ways. Our attempts to merely survive through life’s demands and pressures is to ignore the deepest part of our selves—the part that seeks connection—the part that says, we are not alone, after all.
Read more