by Stephen W. Smith

Soul Care involves more than engaging in ancient practices.  More and more people are talking about Sabbath keeping, which is good. More and more people are talking about silence and solitude, which is wonderful.  Lots of people are hearing about Lectio Divina and actually doing it, which is marvelous.

But caring for the soul is not just an “add-on” to an already overloaded life.

 Soul care is looking upstream for the causes to our dilemma. Soul care requires looking upstream to the source of our unhappiness. Soul Care is about looking further upstream to the root issues that are anchored deep within our soul and exposed by our wounds, nicks and bruises we amass along the way in this journey we call life.

I recall doing a science project in the 8th grade with my teacher, Mrs. Whitner, at a middle school in Charlotte, NC. She asked me to find a creek near my home and to go upstream as far as I could until I found the beginning of the stream—that dark, inner place in the earth where the water was dribbling out. She asked me to find the source—and taught me that the source is ALWAYS upstream, never downstream.  My mandate was to go upstream—to find the streams earthy beginnings.

I wrote a journal about this project; I collected rocks along the way and put the rocks in a box to take to school. I’ll never forget getting an “A” on that project or the inspiration that Mrs. Whitner gave me, as a teacher and mentor, to go upstream and find the source.  Much of what I know now about soul care I attribute to my 8th grade earth science teacher. The earthiness of that lesson and the earthiness of soul care are much the same truth.

I have to go upstream and so will you!

In my own soul journey, I have to go upstream repeatedly to explore my programs of happiness—those distinct ways we are all shaped to find happiness. Some of us look for happiness through success; others through accomplishments, and still others of us look for happiness in square footage of offices, homes, and horse power in engines.  But if we live long enough, we must all take the journey upstream to find out where those lies got lodged in our soul. We must do this because until we find the source of the lie—we will forever be looking for love in all the wrong places.

Soul Care is more about reflecting than it is following a program.  This is important because so many of us both in the church and outside the walls of the church are unhappy. We’ve tried this. We’ve tried that. We become more and more detached and dis-enfranchised to attend a service but to give up on the hope that any real life change is even possible.

I asked two men recently over breakfast if the church they attended was “life-giving?”  They didn’t respond quickly but both said, “Oh, I gave up on that myth years ago. I go out of duty.”

The Perils of Duty

Duty. Duty. Duty. It is in the end, a recognizable cadence that many of us walk to in our lives.  Duty becomes the stream. Duty becomes the water. Duty becomes our ethos. The duty to raise our children in the right way. The duty to be a good neighbor. The duty to be a charming spouse when inwardly we are not charming but exhausted, afraid, and lonely.

We must go upstream.

Soul Care is not about duty.  It is not something else we do. It is not another obligation. Soul care is the invitation to go upstream and to explore. To go into the wild—that wild, curious wilderness within the four chambers of the heart and say, “Search me. Try me. See me.”

I’m alarmed at all the seminars I see now offered by new voices who honestly think they are offering a new program for happiness.  Know your enneagram number and your life will change forever (that’s another myth).  Attend this seminar and your marriage will be changed forever. Come to insert here and find the friend you’ve always longed for.

Somewhere along the way, we awaken to the fact that no seminar, no tip or technique, no book will change our life.  What changes our life from the inside out is to follow the stream until you find the source….and when that source is discovered, take a long, slow drink and allow the water of God to quench what only that sole water can quench.

Didn’t Jesus himself tell us, “If anyone is thirsty? Let him come to me….”  What it seems to me, is that he was inviting us to go upstream, further in and further up than just attending church.  Going to the source… going to the Source (capital “S”), and there we find our hearts longing.

When we find the source, we awaken to the error of our ways in drinking water that could never satisfy the soul. We repent of that fact and then we taste, take in, and drink deeply from the most Amazing Water ever known to humanity—namely Jesus.

Soul Care is about going upstream to the source of our pain to find the balm that can heal us and healing, my friends is far, far better than being fixed. No band-aid can hold the tears of the soul.  It takes God and God alone.

Soul Care is not settling for the fixes but about looking for the Source.

Soul Tending Sculpture

We are very excited to let you know that the sculpture, SOUL TENDING is now available. We commissioned Scott Stearman, a renowned sculptor to make this beautiful piece of art for us. Soul Tending shows hands at work on a piece of pottery; the apprentice hands are hard at work, but the older, seasoned and weathered hands of the master potter are seen guiding the deep work of clay making and soul shaping.

This piece is about mentoring, coaching, teaching, parenting, and spiritual formation. It tells the story of our lives. It is now available to the friends of Potter’s Inn as a gift for yourself or for that special person who has touched your own life in deep ways.