By Kim Olachea
Learn more about our 2022 Workshop Series for Women in Ministry
We are continually hearing appeals for support and promotion of agendas from all kinds of human rights organizations:
Save The Children
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
Family Rescue: Breaking the Cycle of Domestic Violence
Black Lives Matter
Pro-Life Action League
Americans United for Life
Citizens United Resisting Euthanasia
International Justice Mission – Fight to End Human Trafficking
International Rescue Committee – for Ukraine and for Afghanistan
The entire world embraces rescue efforts for those who are endangered, disregarded, undervalued, and unjustly treated. Innately, human beings recognize the value of human life and the concept of justice for all people. Many of us are deeply concerned about the travesties of injustice in our own country and around the world. We wonder how to be effective in protecting the rights of children, women, minorities, and the marginalized.
The problem of injustice is not new. It has existed since the entrance of sin in the world in Genesis 3. An ancient sage once wrote, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!” (Proverbs 24:11, NASB)
As groups defend human rights for certain segments of people, respect and care for individual souls may set aside. One cannot deny that marginalized people need someone to defend them and speak up for them, yet the reality is that Every Life Matters. Every people group matters. Every ethnicity. Every citizen of every country. Every person from conception to old age. Every man. Every woman. Every boy. Every girl. Every person in need. Every person who does not feel they have need. The rich and the poor. The married and the unmarried. The educated and the uneducated. The healthy and the sick. Those who are securely part of a community and those who feel abandoned and alone. Each and Every person matters. EVERY SINGLE [1]SOUL.
Every single soul should matter to us because EVERY SINGLE SOUL DOES MATTER TO GOD – EVEN YOURS, EVEN MINE. For those of us in ministry, the ones who serve the souls of others, we need to remember that our souls matter, too.
The problem is that we often become so busy in the business of the soul care that we fail to take care of our own souls well.
The foundation of all Christian ministry and soul care is Jesus Christ. What better way to understand soul care for others and our own souls than to look at the life and ministry of Jesus.
We find that Jesus prioritized, practiced, modeled, and demonstrated a life of soul care for others, while at the same time taking care of His own soul. Jesus loved souls more than He loved His own life, and we will find that He called us not only to care for the souls of others but to tend to our own souls as well. How can we love others as ourselves if we do not value our own souls? If we do not take care of our own souls, we cannot effectively love God or love others well. Both are necessary to obey His commands and to truly seek to fulfil His Great Commission.
Jesus challenged His disciples to “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Notice that He did not end the charge here. He followed with these words, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34-37, NASB)
We may have the idea that taking up our cross and denying ourselves means ALWAYS SAYING YES to the needs of others while often SAYING NO to the needs of our souls.
But Jesus never lived in this way. The crowds always came. The needs were great. The people came early every day, always wanting to see Jesus. There were always those who needed healing. People were always crying out for His help. Sometimes, they were so busy looking for Jesus, they failed to plan, getting hungry and finding they had no food. Jesus always provided. A group of friends even cut a hole in the roof of a housetop to get their friend to Jesus knowing He could, and would, heal him. Jesus showed compassion ALWAYS. He loved ALWAYS. He healed the sick. He met the needs of the widow. He cast out the demons. He raised the dead. He spoke with grace. He comforted those who were grieving. He cried with Mary and Martha. He blessed the children. He forgave the sinful woman, lifting her up. He gave selflessly. He cared for every soul like no one else could or ever would. Yet even as He gave, He never neglected His own soul.
Jesus practiced personal soul care through a life of balance that included caring for the souls of others and recognizing the His own need to be alone and spend time with His Father. In Luke 21:37 (NASB) we read, “Now during the day He was teaching in the temple, but at evening He would go out and spend the night on the mount that is called Olivet.” Jesus knew when it was time to give of Himself and when it was time to go away alone with His Father.
He also recognized His own physical limitations. He knew when His body needed rest. In this way, Jesus modeled one way we can cultivate a healthy soul. “When (Jesus) got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, a violent storm developed on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves, but Jesus Himself was asleep.” (Matthew 8:23-24, NASB)
When I was a young mom with little ones, I went to a widely known women’s conference known as Joyful Woman Jubilees, led by Joy Rice Martin and her sisters, the six daughters of the Dr. John R. Rice. I will always remember Joy Martin making this statement: “Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.” That was before “soul care” became a thing in the evangelical world. What a gift this was to me as a young mom and busy pastor’s wife, to receive permission and affirmation to lay down on my bed after lunch, turn out the light, and rest while my little ones were napping! That nap made all the difference in my soul. I was a better wife, mom, and Christian because of those moments of rest that restored my soul.
Recently, I saw a T-shirt that read: JESUS TOOK NAPS. BE LIKE JESUS!
Think about the spiritual implications of Jesus’ nap in that storm recorded in the Gospel of Luke. For Jesus, the most spiritual thing He could do that day for Himself and for His disciples (and for us today as we reflect on the story) was to take a nap!
• For Himself, He physically needed rest!
• For His disciples, they needed faith and they needed to experience His power over creation in preparation for what was to come.
• For us today, the lessons from that incident increase our faith as we recognize that He is with us in the storm and that He is able to rescue us from the storm.
We have sometimes confused the term soul care with self-care, leading to the idea that we are being selfish when we take time for personal soul care. Jesus demonstrated the selflessness of soul care in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prayed, “Not My will but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42, NASB) Yet at the same time, He recognized His own need for soul care, telling His men, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me…” (Mathew 26:38, NASB) His soul was restored in the presence of His Father and strengthened to do what His Father had sent Him to do. It was through the practice of personal soul care that He received the power of the Spirit to face betrayal, torture, and death for our souls.
As we consider the life Jesus lived and His call for us to follow Him, to deny ourselves and take up our cross, we will better understand the need for a healthy soul. Jesus commanded His disciples to “…love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… (and) love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
When we think on these two commandments, we will realize will we love God well when our heart, soul, mind, and strength are healthy. We also understand that if we are to love our neighbor well, we must love ourselves well. This means that we must learn to care for that which God cares deeply for, that is we must learn to care for our souls.
Stephen Smith writes in his book, Soul Custody,
We forfeit our souls every single time we choose to drain ourselves and not replenish ourselves; run on empty rather than stopping and intentionally doing things that will bring us life; burn out rather than live meaningful, significant, and impactful lives that are enjoyable and life giving to others. (p. 29)
The most important thing we can do to cultivate personal soul care is to cultivate our relationship with the Father, as Jesus did each time He left the people to spend time with His Father.
There are many other things we may need to do in times of crisis. We should not discount the effects of physical illness, medical conditions, mental illness, or emotional trauma. In our despair and suffering, we may need medical care, a professional counselor, a mental health professional to guide us toward health for our bodies, minds, and emotional distress. God knows and understands all of our needs, and He has given human beings His wisdom to be able to help those who need it. When we deny these resources, we are limiting God, putting Him in a little box, when He is the infinite Creator of our souls including our bodies, minds, and emotions. The psalmist writes, “For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14 NKJV)
Ultimately, with all other interventions and helps He provides, we still need God to truly heal the depths of our soul, to make us completely whole, if we are to truly love and care for the souls of others.
Puritan Thomas Brooks states it well,
All the soul needs is found in God. There is light to enlighten the soul, wisdom to counsel the soul, power to support the soul, goodness to supply to the soul, mercy to pardon the soul, beauty to delight the soul, glory to ravish the soul, and fullness to fill the soul…The highest good is that which is most suited to do good to the soul. God is thus the most excellent portion suitable to the soul. (Voices From the Past: Volume 1, p.33)
Click here to learn more about our 2022 Workshop Series for Women in Vocational Christian Ministry: A Lil’ Bit of Soul Care
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[1] The term “soul” in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew “nephesh”. “In Hebrew understanding…a soul is…a living and breathing, God-created, embodied person with a distinct personality…” According to Hebrew scholar, Dr. Jeff McCrory, “The soul is the person.” The NIV often translates soul as “my whole being.” Gaultiere, Bill. What is the Soul? Bible Verses to Care for Your Soul. Retrieved fromSoul Care Shepherding, March 4, 2022.