Reader,

How well do you know your soul?

If you're like many modern Christians, the word "soul" feels abstract and ethereal. You know you have one, but you're not quite sure what—let alone where!—it is.

But what if I told you that your soul, when healthy, is perhaps the most grounded part of your spiritual makeup? Would you believe me?

As a refresher, we're in the middle of a series about the four parts of our spiritual anatomy and the characters that can help us better understand what's going on inside of us. Last week we explored how your heart is a Loving Companion. This week, I want you to consider how your soul is a Visionary Guide.

Your soul is the part of you that dreams. It's the piece that sees the broken places of our world in desperate need of God’s healing touch.

These visions must start underneath the surface of your skin, asking the question, “What kind of person do I want to be?” From there, it extends to what’s within your four walls: “What kind of home, marriage, or family do I want to create?” Only once you've answered those questions can you go beyond your four walls and ask, “What impact is God inviting me to attempt, not within my own power, but His?”

These visions are not happily-ever-after fantasies. They are grounded aspirations to join God in making all things new (Revelation 21:5). From these soulful aspirations flow your true identity and purpose, providing clarity about who you are, and what your life is about.

Your soul represents your sense of self, establishing where you end and others begin. When healthy, it grounds you in acute awareness of who you are and what your life is about. In turn, this groundedness empowers you to dream about possibilities and envision a clear direction.

When unhealthy, however, the soul turns into a con artist—saying, doing, or becoming whatever it takes to manipulate others into seeing or doing what it desires. Either that or the soul disappears into denial, choosing not to see what’s happening right in front of it and pretending to know less that it does. If the soul is misfiring, true meaning and purpose will be impossible to achieve.

So, how do you move your soul—your Visionary Guide—towards health?

Your Visionary Guide is uncovered and aroused by holding space in stillness and solitude. Various types of prayer may be used to fill these quiet places—centering prayer, listening prayer, Biblical meditation, spoken prayer, imaginative prayer, and so on.

In short, you reveal the Visionary Guide through stillness.

You can see why the soul feels so abstract and distant to many of us today. Our lives don't create a whole lot of space for being still. We're incessantly active, from the moment our alarm goes off to the moment we fall sleep.

If embracing stillness feels scary or impossible to you, that's okay. Start with something small. Pick a short Psalm and read it to yourself three times. Pull out a piece of paper and write down whatever thoughts come to your mind. Sit on a park bench for five minutes and pay attention to what you hear.

Whatever it is, pick something and make it a habit. And as you carve out this time day by day, keep your ears open. You'll soon start to hear your Visionary Guide, who's been patiently waiting to reconnect with you.

You are loved.

I'm for you.

You've got this.

Jake