The Book
Soul Keeping Caring for the Most Important Part of You (Zondervan, 2014) by John Ortberg
The Idea
John Ortberg (pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in Menlo Park, California) reflects on the lessons he learned from his friend and mentor, Dallas Willard. Willard's insights into the mysterious nature of our souls reorient the Christian life around the practice of soul care, revealing that destination is only one small part of what it means to save souls. By concentrating on the condition of our souls, we find contentment in God's presence, during current trials, and stretching into eternity.
Overview
Introduction: Ortberg recounts his first meeting with writer, philosopher, and "healer of souls" Dallas Willard. The conversation drifts from the professional to the personal, and he finds himself in a state of confession: "Why is it that I have a PhD in clinical psychology … and yet I'm not sure who I am?" Willard responds by introducing Ortberg to the importance of his soul. "Your soul is not just something that lives on after your body dies. It's the most important thing about you. It is your life." This insight becomes the raison d'être for this book—to understand and nurture the human soul.
Part 1: What the Soul Is
Before Ortberg can address the soul, its nature, and its importance, he must define it. This proves difficult, since "most people believe they know what soul means, but when asked to explain it, they can't do it." Our culture uses the term in such strikingly different ways: as a ghostly apparition, or a description of music or food. But all of these notions circle around concepts such as life, vitality, and eternity.
Ortberg settles on a definition given to him by Dallas Willard: "The soul is the life center of human beings." In other words, the soul is the integration of the various parts of a person: body, mind, and will. It also drives our connections with the rest of creation and with God. "It is the deepest part of you, and it is the whole person." An unhealthy soul, then, is disorganized, disconnected, and dis-integrated. Ortberg laments that the world has replaced the word soul with self, but the two are not synonymous. As we obsess over self, we actually neglect the soul, since self deals with the human person outside of relationship with God.
Our world is at odds with the health of our souls. It placates our souls with superficial, disjointed, and transitory things, but those are at odds with the depth, unity, and eternality that our souls crave. We require a shift of perspective: "I had always thought that a lost soul referred to a soul's destination, not its condition. But it's the condition that is the real problem." That condition, it turns out, is sick: "Sin is the sickness that our souls have inherited." Sin disconnects us from God by disrupting the proper workings of the soul, which was "made to love and do the will of God."
Part 2: What the Soul Needs
In the second part of the book, Ortberg addresses the soul's neediness—the thing that opens it up to idolatry, but also the very thing that connects us to God. Souls crave, yet they are unable to satisfy themselves. Our vulnerable souls require a keeper (apart from God's role as captain). Our souls are on loan from him, so we must care for them because "I and no one else am responsible for the condition of my soul." Ortberg identifies the essence of soul care as centering the soul on a proper foundation: God. An un-centered soul is prone to illness and death, but "the soul comes alive when it is centered on God."
Proper soul care recognizes the compass for eternal things that God placed in the hearts of all people. We live in view of a paradoxical future: all things wither and die, but we were created for eternity—first pain, then joy. Appreciating God's presence gives us the power to find contentment in those painful times, no matter the circumstance, as exemplified by the life of Brother Lawrence. This becomes the soul keeper's daily goal: to fill every moment with "conscious awareness of and surrender to God's presence." Unless we find acceptance in God's grace before our own achievements (and regular rest in that same sustaining grace), our souls will become fatigued, damaging our relationships with others. In fact, "to remain healthy, our souls need solitude with no agenda, no distractions, no noise."
The soul craves freedom that, in a counterintuitive way, comes from obedience to God's law. Freedom from obedience may seem desirable, but in reality, "the ability to have anything you want actually can cost you your freedom." Just ask Samson, whose wanton desire for Delilah led to both physical and spiritual captivity. Ortberg suggests that this freedom can be found by replacing old, sinful habits with new, healthy habits. Of particular importance are the regular ways we interact with other people. "In every encounter with other people we will what is good for them, or we fail to do so: we will what is bad." We should strive to bless others—to project good and love into their lives. By taking a posture of gratitude, we orient away from ourselves and toward others, feeding our souls in the process.
Part 3: The Soul Restored
In the final section, Ortberg turns to a difficult subject: what St. John of the Cross called "the dark night of the soul." This experience isn't merely a time of suffering—it's suffering while God makes his presence unfelt. "When the soul begins to enjoy the benefits of the spiritual life and then has them taken away, it becomes embittered and angry." But our response to such an experience should not be to work harder—quite the opposite. We must do nothing. And that's just the point of the dark night of the soul. It forces us to trust God, to trust in his slowness and to find confidence in his promises. While we may not sense his presence in those moments, his love endures.
Finally, Ortberg reflects once again on his friend and mentor, Dallas Willard. As Willard's body slowly succumbs to cancer, Ortberg reflects on the wisdom he imparted: "In the end, the outer world fades. We are left with the inner world. It is what we will take with us." According to Willard, the gospel "means that the soul is simply not at risk. Not even from cancer." After all, nothing can separate us from God's love, and a healthy soul is fully aware of that abiding love.
Copyright © 2015 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
