“He restores my soul…”

Recently I returned from 2 trips.  The first was a 10-day cross-cultural, cross-country sightseeing bus trip with int’l students and scholars.  While their goal was to see the country, our goal was to generate conversations where we weave in spiritual topics and hopefully the gospel.  I’ve been on trips like this before — they’re a staple of our mission agency’s outreach — but this one was different.  Never have I seen such a secular-minded group.  Of the 31 onboard, 28 were ethnic Chinese and 3 were spoke Spanish.  Over half of the Chinese burned hour after continuous hour on a card game named Killer (aka, “Mafia”) while we drove.  You could hardly break in to begin a conversation.  So our goals were kind of a bust.

Four days after returning home and catching up on hundreds of emails, I flew to the Big Apple, my ultimate destination being a Christian retreat center in western Massachusetts. I was the plenary speaker for about 35 int’l students, scholars and residents.  I addressed Christian growth and discipleship through 5 plenaries, 2 workshops and 1 Sunday morning “service”.  My opening remarks partly consisted of the point — for that week, at least — to keep the spiritual part of us whole in our thinking.  Sure, Scripture talks about our minds, hearts, souls, spirits, emotions, etc.  And we do see some itemization of them: minds renewed, hearts replaced (see Ezekiel 11:19, 18:31, 36:26) and so on.  I told them that being fallen and not having the complete view on our spiritual parts, we do better in the short term to not delineate our spiritual side, but keep it in tact for the sake of discussion.  That generated a lot of discussion that prepared everyone for what was to come.  God moved in our midst in a tremendous way that week.

One of those spiritual components is our soul, and Psalm 23:3 says that the Lord, our Shepherd, “restores my soul”.  The Hebrew word is an interesting combination of the ideas of returning and renewing.  Here’s and example of how that works.  After being gone from my family for 20 of 23 days, on the go, giving and serving by way of helping others, meeting needs, picking up conversations, teaching and answering questions, I was tired and ready to get home.  After being back with “my people” (family) for a day or so, my soul began to feel restored.  I was back in my normal environs, with those that I love and mean the most to me.  It was a great pick-me-up, a refreshment that everyone needs.  While that was in the personal/interactive/emotional area, it does affect the spiritual and physical areas too.  So when any one of the areas gets a boost or a charge, it can spill over to the other areas.  This is what I was saying at the retreat: instead of dissecting our spiritual parts, let’s keep them unified and simply do what Scripture says about them.  God can use many things to restore our souls.  Family is just one way.  Times of quiet, being alone, a walk through a quiet and deserted park or woods, etc., can be a more direct way that God renews our souls.  The Shepherd makes his sheep to “lie down in green pastures” and then “beside quiet waters” (v. 2) to restore their souls.  Even when walking “through the valley of the shadow of death” we need not fear because he is with us as his rod and staff bring “comfort” (v. 4).

I remember one particular time when God renewed my soul.  When I was single, a good friend of mine and I played tennis one night a week.  Carter was married and we used to get some snacks after playing.  One winter night he said, “We don’t need to go the store: Diane’s got something hot for us at home.”  Then he said, “Bill, I don’t know how you do it.”  “Do what?” I asked. “How do you stay single?  I mean, how do you go home every night to that empty home, empty room and empty bed?  I’m not talking about sex or anything, just the lack of companionship.”  “I dunno,” I said, “I just do it.  I don’t think about it.”  After some laughs with them, I left to return to my … empty home … empty room, and … empty bed.  Naturally I couldn’t sleep.  Tossing and turning was no help.  So I got up, angry at God, turned on the light and literally threw my Bible onto my desk.  “Why am I still single, Lord?  All my friends are married except me.  Do you know what you’re doing?”  Then I looked down.  The Bible was open to 1 Samuel 9 where Israel rejected God’s kingship over them, preferring a king they could see.  “What if I have a plan for you that requires you to be single?” the Lord asked me.  “Would you want to miss that because you want to be like everyone else?”  “No, Lord.  I’m sorry.  I’ll be patient and wait on you.”  He restored my soul.  And he did indeed have a plan for me: he brought Jenni along, and she continually restores me.

All believers should have stories where God restored their souls.  Do you have and share yours?