Welcome to Pushing Pause where we take a moment each week to explore faith, rest, and beauty in our everyday lives. In each week’s email you’ll find a short reflection, a resource, and a practice to go deeper with the week’s topic. I’m glad you’re here!
Welcome back to part 2 in the soul series! Last week we looked briefly at this mystifying idea of our soul. The Hebrew word “nephesh” is the word we see most used in scripture that is translated to soul in our English language. This word however didn’t just name one interior, eternal part of our being but was better understood to mean the whole living being.
Soul Care encompasses the needs we have as a whole person. This kind of care goes deeper than just needing a break with some pampering or needing sleep. While those can be part of soul care it’s not the full picture. There are times we need the care of silence to think and process. Times for a walk in the fresh air to rejuvenate and ground us. Other times soul care could look like grabbing coffee with a friend to share the struggles or triumphs of your current season to feel less alone. Soul care is not just one thing. I think of soul care as the things that help me come home to myself, caring for myself in a way that reminds me of who I am and centers me in the presence of God.
It has taken some learning on my part through the years to prioritize soul care for myself. For too long I sat back waiting for someone else to notice how hard I was working and offer me a break. When this didn’t happen I carried on with a chip on my shoulder imagining what it would be like to run away from normal life for a week. Instead, I’ve now learned to notice and advocate for my own needs as a human being, and soul care is part of that.
Intentionally pursuing soul care matters because no one else will prioritize our boundaries, limits, and needs for us. Most of the time, life is asking something of us; show up at a certain time, return emails, meet deadlines, respond to requests, provide for others (meals, transportation, care, etc, etc). We are the only ones who can seek the restoration and refreshment our bodies, spirits, and minds need. Without soul care we will find ourselves burned out, bitter, or both. To show up in love to the life before us requires some intentional practices to nurture ourselves. Life is not meant to be a burden. We are meant to cultivate joy and peace and that comes with paying attention to our needs and offering ourselves the gift of soul care.
Soul care becomes the antidote to feeling depleted, overwhelmed, and weary. We will experience those feelings but soul care beckons us to return to our place of resting in the goodness of God and how he’s made us. When we pay attention to our needs we are recognizing our limitations and choosing to honor the way we are created to refuel and recenter ourselves in the presence of God. We choose a nap or to make music and in doing so we discover rest, peace, joy. We come home to ourselves in remembering who we are and what brings life. This too is worship. Caring for ourselves is part of nurturing God’s creation. We are his handiwork. Our enjoyment and peace matters! Soul care is like showing hospitality to ourselves not for the sake of self-indulgence but for rooting ourselves in the kind love of God as he points us towards wholeness.
You are a soul made by God, made for God, and made to need God, which means you were not made to be self-sufficient. - Dallas Willard
Our soul begins to grow in God when we acknowledge our basic neediness. - John Ortberg
A Prayer
Beloved,
You tenderly invite me to find my home in you. In you I find my belonging, joy, and deepest peace. As I meet the demands of daily life may I listen to the quiet longings of my being and respond in love with the care my soul needs.
Amen
Thanks for reading. I hope you create space to listen deeply to the needs of your soul this week and see the value in honoring those needs. -Lindsay