THE PRACTICING CHURCH
  • Our Story
    • Parish
    • Beliefs
    • Values
    • Team
  • Welcome
    • Connect to Community
    • Current Happenings
  • Renewal
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Listen
  • Give
  • Contact

The Blog

The Practicing church

The Soul Needs

1/17/2019

0 Comments

 
​This last Sunday, we continued our conversation about Soulful Living. Many of you are familiar with the classic comedy film, What About Bob?. In it, Bill Murray plays this neurotic, phobic, obsessive-compulsive personality with innumerable needs who follows his exasperated therapist, played by Richard Dreyfuss, on vacation.

But Bob has needs.

He has terrible anxiety leaving his house. And I quote, “I get weird. I get dizzy spells, nausea, cold sweats/hot sweats, fever blisters, involuntary trembling, blurred vision, dead hands, numb lips, fingernail sensitivity, pelvic discomfort, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing... What if my heart stops beating? What if I’m looking for a bathroom and I can’t find one and my bladder explodes?” Yes, Bob has needs. And yet in this analogy.

Your soul is Bob; and you are Richard Dreyfuss.*

[*Stolen from the book by John Ortberg, Soul Keeping.]

It is the nature of the soul to need.

Thomas Aquinas wrote that the neediness of our souls is what points us to God. For we are limited creatures, virtually in every way; in our intelligence, our strength, our energy, our morality. But as Kent Dunnington puts it,

“We are limited in every way but one: we have unlimited desire.”

We always want more: more time, more wisdom, more beauty, more chocolate, more Netflix. This is the soul crying out. In a sense, we never have enough. And yet the truth is that the soul’s infinite capacity to desire is the mirror image of God’s infinite capacity to give.

The unlimited neediness of the soul matches the unlimited grace of God.

Which is great for those of us who are afraid of our need. That somehow it is too much, shameful, or despicable. Afraid that we may be overwhelmed by the abyss of our need. But God’s grace is boundless. And surely, if God’s grace is enough for Bob, it is enough for us.

So the soul is needy. The soul desires. What the soul truly desires is God.

We may try to fill that need with other things. Which is in fact at the root of our sin, our idolatry, or what we would call addiction. This is simply the soul meeting its need with anything that disrupts our communion with God.

And so while we may try to fill that need with other things, the soul will never be satisfied without God. The psalmist speaks of this in Psalm 84, “My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.”

The soul needs to be with God.

And throughout the Scriptures, we see that the soul was designed to desire, to search, to thirst for God. Our souls thirst for God as parched land thirsts for water. Our souls desire to be with God, to be seen and to be known and to be held. Our souls are clingy the Psalmists say. Our souls cling to God. Our souls wait for God. Our souls stalk God (like Bob). For we are meant to live in the very presence of God.

Our souls will never find rest until they rest in God.

And this is the way we are created. To be in abiding communion with God even as Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day.

But I don't have to tell you that modern life today is a hostile environment for the soul. There is no time for rest, let alone resting in God. And yet our souls are hungry. Our souls are weary.

A Beautiful Invitation

Jesus said this, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” [Matthew 11:28-30 MSG]

This is such a beautiful invitation from Jesus to us. That we could come to him and recover our lives and learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

Join us this Sunday as we continue our conversation about Soulful Living and examine how to practice the presence of God in our everyday, chaotic lives, learning from Brother Lawrence, Saint Ignatius and many mystics and monastics who have gone before us.

For our souls need. Our souls need God. And our souls need rest.In fact, they crave it. The soul knows only borrowed strength. The soul is meant to rest in God like a tree rests in the soil, like a branch rests in the vine.
​
May you answer this beautiful invitation of Jesus to come and find rest.


by Jessica Ketola
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    the practicing church

    We are a group of ordinary people with an extraordinary dream - to join God in the renewal of all things by engaging in practices that ground us in the love of God.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    May 2014

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Angela Ferrara
    Beatitudes
    Black Lives Matter
    Carrie Cates
    Community
    Community Values
    Contemplative Spirituality
    Easter
    Epiphany
    Fire In My Bones
    Freedom In Constraint
    Good News
    Holy Spirit
    Hope
    Incarnation
    Inward Journey
    Jessica
    Jessica Ketola
    Justice
    Lament
    Lent
    Love
    Neighboring
    On Earth As It Is In Heaven
    Pentecost
    Radical Hospitality
    Reconciliation
    Rose Swetman
    Sabbath
    Sacred Ordinary
    Soul Force
    Soulful Living
    Story
    Summer In The Psalms
    The Dream
    The Practicing Church

    RSS Feed

Browse
Home
Our Story
Renewal
Media

Blog
Give
About
Our Story
Parish
​Beliefs
Values
Team
Connect
Welcome
Community
What's Poppin
Media
​
Blog
Podcast



Join the Conversation
Contact Us​
Picture
© 2015 The Practicing Church