Soul Words

I'm in a band.

Well, probably not what you're thinking. Though I am a proficient "three chord strummer" on an acoustic guitar, this is not a musical band.

The band, in this case, is a discipleship band, which is a John Wesleyan concept of a few people who come together for regular prayer and confession. This idea has been revived by a faith community I am a part of, Seedbed.

There are several parts to the band meeting structure but today I just want to focus on one. Each member opens by first answering this question,

How is it with your soul?

My bandmates and I often laugh about the inherent challenge of this question.

We tend to live most of our awareness within our minds or in our bodies, but neither of these are really our souls. So, the first challenge is one of location, where is my soul?

It takes some time and practice to tune out of the physical bodily sensations we most often inhabit, or escape the mental loops and agitation that we often let run on autopilot, and instead drop deeper into the realm of our soul life.

Our idea of our “heart” is probably close to the soul life experience, but we have to be careful with our emotional life that resides in the heart, as some of what we feel, even deeply and intensely, tends to be bound up inextricably with our egotistical desires.

But make no mistake, though it may feel harder to grasp, the soul life is no less real. Like breath, like wind, like energy, our souls are invisible but powerful and vital. What makes them harder to attune to is the very quality that links them to our Creator. They are the part of us that is most like him. Meaning they are gentle and lowly, humble and unassuming, quiet and still, patient and enduring.

We become like Elijah pressed into the cleft of the rock, waiting for the harsh wind (our racing thoughts), the earthquake (our fears and doubts), and the fire (our physical aches and pains) to subside. As we let them pass by, our inner world finally falls quiet and still and there is a whisper, and there is God, and there is our soul and now we are ready to come out and meet it. (1 Kings 19:11-13)

In band, as we answer this question, “How is it with your soul?” We are telling of a condition. Over time, this condition becomes less and less dependent upon circumstance. It reminds me of the story of Horatio Spafford, the author of the famous hymn, “It is Well with my Soul.”

Horatio did not pen these words on a sunny day in the garden, when the temperature was just right, with hope overflowing because all the desires of his heart had been met. No, as the story goes, he penned them upon the heels of the tragic loss of his most beloved family members, all four of his daughters, who perished in a stormy, raging sea.

We know because we are human how his heart must have been devastated, his body grief stricken, his mind tormented for how this fate could befall them. Sadly, we know that it is sometimes only by this sweeping darkness of grief, when every light of our lives has been effectually snuffed out, we are able to see with such clarity the only flame that endures, the only hope that withstands, the only signal of freedom from complete and eternal ruin - which is our soul and how it is loved and held by God.

And so he must’ve have found in his faith, some peace and fortification to be able to preach to himself through this terrible loss, “Thou have taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.”

The words we preach to ourselves are important. Words have power.

Pastor and author, Charles Allen, writes in his book Healing Words,

“Our lives are deeply affected by the words upon which our minds center…It is no accident that the words ‘meditation’ and ‘medication’ are so similar in sound and spelling. The fact is, right meditation is medication.”

That isn’t to say that we should refrain from the honest words that our souls whisper though they may not be positive, happy, or well, for the first element of this practice is learning to identify the condition of the soul as it is, not as it ought to be. But as we learn the language of our souls, we also are given the ability to medicate them with our meditations.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14

I believe Allen’s exchange of “meditation” for “medication” is appropriate in this Psalm verse, for the conditions of our souls are dependent on how well we medicate them with our fellowship with God.

The more time we spend with the word, in worship, in wonder, the more our soul life is nourished. Perhaps part of the goal in this question is simply to parse out our soul from our mind/emotions/body and through that work we locate that which is within us that endures all things.

We can be sure that “all things” will test and transpire over the course of our lives. But there is a part of us that is eternally secure, provided for, comforted, loved, whole, healed, and at peace.

That is the part that whenever the question is asked, “How is it with your soul?”

Will always respond, “Well.”