At some points in our lives we, too, may sense the void if we have lost the connection with our roots...our spiritual roots. We are entrusted to our earthly parents for just a short time; our creator is our biological father. "See what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). We must remain rooted in our Heavenly Father through our soul.
Right now our small group is doing a study called Soul Keeping by John Ortberg. In it we are learning that "Our soul is like an inner stream of water, which gives strength, direction, and harmony to every other element of our life. When that stream is as it should be, we are constantly refreshed and exuberant in all we do, because our soul itself is then profusely rooted in the vastness of God...(Dallas Willard)." In his book, Ortberg tells "The Parable of the Keeper of the Soul." Our soul is like a stream and we are responsible for keeping it. We need to keep it clear from branches, leaves, and debris that would cause it to become stagnant or blocked. Identifying the branches of social media and entertainment, the leaves of too many activities falling on us, and the debris of worldly thinking that can clog our stream and slow the spiritual flow can be fairly easy. The hard is staying vigilant in keeping our stream cleared so that living waters can pour into our lives.
The part of us that lives eternally with our Heavenly Father, our soul, requires care. John Ortberg gives us these thoughts to consider as the keeper of our souls:
"Slow down. Look up. Lean in. Listen to God."
"Make room in your life to care for your soul.
Protect it. Guard it. Keep it.
Only one person can keep the soul--and that one person is you." .
I need to remember to become like the little girl in the picture above who takes time to reach up and spend time in her Daddy's arms; how about you?