“You are a soul. You have a body.”

“You are a soul. You have a body.”

C.S. Lewis

“And what do you benefit
If you gain the whole world but lose
Your own soul?
Is anything worth more than your soul?”

MATTHEW 16:26 NLT

I'm posting part of the Introduction to a book that has become a dear companion. I heard Ruth Haley Barton speak about a month ago at a spiritual retreat for women in leadership in the church and it was riveting.

This is a book that resonates deeply with me on the last six months on my journey in taking critical and unwasted time to allow God to tend to my soul. At the end of my journey, I literally felt I came out a different person. I got to share my experiences recently with a large group and could not hold back from saying, I feel freer than I did 12 weeks ago. Life looks different. Feels different. This is the work of God in the tender mysteries of the soul. And coming out of that particular journey and starting the summer feeling like a different person, this book and Barton’s already mentorship in my life through this book has allowed God to give me a deeper desire to pursue Him and meet with Him there, in the depths of my soul, where “our spirit meets with the Spirit of God.”

Enjoy.

:::

From the intro:

“This book is about the soul—your soul, my soul and the soul of our leadership.

When I refer to the soul, I am not talking about some ill-defined, amorphous, soft-around-the-edges sort of thing.

I am talking about the part of you that is most real—the very essence of you that God knew before he brought you forth in physical form, the part of you that will exist after your body goes forth into the ground.

This is the “you” that exists beyond any role you play, any job you perform, any relationship that seems to define you, or any notoriety or success you may have achieved. It is the part of you that longs for more of God than you have right now, the part that may, even now, be aware of “missing” God amid the challenges of life in ministry.

Jesus indicates that it is possible to gain the whole world but lose your own soul. If he were talking to us as Christian leaders today, he might point out that it is possible to gain the whole world of ministry success and lose your own soul in the midst of it all. He might remind us that it is possible to find your soul, after so much seeking, only to lose it again.

If Jesus were speaking to us today, he might also point out that when leaders lose their souls, so dot he churches and organizations they lead. “Souls slip away easily from a church or an institution,” Gordon Cosby, founding pastor of Church of the Savior in Washington D.C., points out. “You may go to any of these places and find that the Spirit has departed and the Shekinah is gone. . . . When a local church loses its soul it begins to slip into mediocrity and is unable to give life. The average person doesn’t even know when a church begins to lose its soul. It takes unusual deeper wisdom to see it, and then when we see it, it is constantly beyond words to retrieve it.”

Losing your soul is sort of like losing a credit card. You think it’s in your wallet so you don’t give it much thought until one day you reach for it and can’t find it. The minute you realize it’s gone, you start scrambling to find it, trying to remember when you last used it or at least had it in your possession. No matter what is going on in your life, you stop and look for it, because otherwise major damage could be done. Oh, that we would feel the same sense of urgency when we become aware that we have lost our souls!

THE BEST THING WE BRING TO LEADERSHIP

…I have only one desire for this book, really, and that is that it will lead you into encounters with God that will strengthen the soul of your leadership in places where you need it most.

Truly, the best thing any of us have to bring to leadership is our own transforming selves…”

- Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry

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Hearing those words come out of her mouth at the retreat (and then to later find them in her book) completely validated my experiences. Experiences that I could not explain, but knew were necessary and a crucible that was necessary for me to pass through along with the task of support raising.

I couldn’t even understand it at times, but going through the process I just came out of, I had no questions, no doubt in my mind that that process was what ultimately God would use to save my life. not only my life but my relationships, present and future. My career and longevity in ministry. All of it was at stake. I knew it but could not describe it and she completely validated the prompting I had from God and even that one other person in my life confirmed as I had to convince the rest of those involved with my life that this was painfully necessary even though it didn’t make sense.

Every step of the journey revealed itself to me afresh that it was God-ordained and uncharted territory that was critical to being able to move forward.

I felt so “known” by God at the retreat, as we were guided in different exercises regarding our purpose and our leadership as well as solitude and experiencing His presence. He spoke to my heart in profound ways and revealed things in hindsight that were extremely comforting.

We need to be continually listening to and being led by the voice of God. The voice that drowns out all the others.

For He is always faithful.
More than faithful.
As He lovingly provides and lovingly guides His children.