Personal Development: Deepening Our Souls

Yesterday’s post on reading was much easier to write than this one. I’ve always been one whose knowledge outstripped her performance, whose competence exceeded her character. Living with integrity is much harder than knowing what to do. But there’s one great trick to personal development that is so effective, it’s amazing that it is so seldom tried.

It’s simply this: to look to the one who made us, our designer. Really, if life feels out of control, who are you going to cry out to? Once I was preparing a teaching on prayer and intended to pass on all kinds of tips on prayer etiquette, do's and dont's. As I opened up the Bible - well, that book is just full of surprises, isn't it? I discovered that God was a lot less picky than I am. He doesn't go around grading people's prayers. He accepts them, and responds.

One of the best words of advice ever offered, says my old friend Paula (more from her tomorrow), came from a mother (of course!). You may know her. Her name was Mary. The words she spoke to the servants at that wedding in Cana ring out loud and clear:

“Whatever he (Jesus) says, do it.”

This requires cultivating the arts of listening, asking, praying, seeking – and yeah, responding and obeying.

Spirituality and Soul Care

Let's step back a bit to some principles my non-Christian readers will be able to appreciate as well. (You guys are very patient. I appreciate it!)

In Serious Times, James Emery White quotes St. Francis de Sales – sort of a sixteenth-century “Dear Abby” who served as spiritual director to hundreds if not thousands of Catholics mostly through his correspondence. I have kept his Introduction to the Devout Life on my bookshelf since college days but haven’t pulled it down for some time.

“It is true, my dear reader, that I write about the devout life although I myself am not devout,” says Francis.

I think many of us can identify with that. We don’t have a sense of “being” spiritual people, of having arrived in any sense - just of being hungry for that kind of life. We know that anything really worthwhile and life-giving which we might have to pass along to anyone else depends on having our inner reservoirs filled up one way or another. Isn't that true?

I find – do you? That in spite of my fascination with the various disciplines of what you might call “soul care” – mental health, counseling, healing prayer, and the like – when it comes to myself, I keep such things at arm’s length. I take very little care for my own soul. I think perhaps I believe, subconsciously, that I’m a pretty poor specimen and not worthy of such pampering!

Funny how silly our assumptions, especially the ones that sicken or cripple us, sound if we actually put them into words, isn’t it? Because of course to what extent I am a mess it is an argument to pay more attention to matters of mental/emotional/spiritual health, not less.

So, what can we do? What steps can we take to become healthier, stronger, more mature than we currently are?

I’m going to leave you hanging; this is getting too long. Come back tomorrow for some practical suggestions. But feel free to leave your thoughts on the above – or advice – before seeing what our pal White has to say. I appreciate your feedback.