Full Souls, Active Minds, Light Hearts

I want you to walk through this world with a full soul, an active mind, and a light heart. 

An Empty, Dry Soul

It's easy for our spiritual life to become a dry landscape. Like a ghost town filled with empty buildings, our faith can become a lifeless collection of ideas and rituals. Our souls can become empty vessels longing for something more.

Jesus knew this about our human condition. He used metaphors about old and new wineskins. He told stories about seeds needing good, well-watered soil. He turned empty stone jars into barrels of wine and he spoke of living water flowing through our lives.

He saw the dry and parched internal worlds of the people who crossed his path and left their souls full and alive. He makes the same offer to us today: an offer of living water, rich soil, and full souls. 

A Disengaged Mind

It’s easy for our minds to become tired, apathetic, and disengaged. It's easy for our minds to atrophy and stop thinking with childlike creativity and grown-up wisdom. Meanwhile, well-intended leaders and influencers offer quick answers that simplify our problems but do little to help us wake up, move forward, and engage in the present moment.

Jesus knew this about our human condition. He taught with parables that surprised and engaged. He asked questions. Lots of questions. He respected and challenged the wisdom, intellect, and emotions of the finite people he walked with. He talked to powerful men and pious women, to poor fishermen and women of ill repute, to crooks and children. Jesus invited them all into deeper wonder and deeper wisdom.

He makes the same invitation to us, calling us to walk through life with our curiosity, wisdom, and intellect - with our whole minds active and engaged.  

A Heavy Heart

It's easy for our hearts to become weighed down. Painful experiences, past traumas, losses, broken relationships, and other wounds leave their mark.  They also leave a burden. Traumas weigh us down. Abuse and neglect leave us with psychological and emotional scars. Grief sticks to our hearts, to our souls. We carry the weight of others' choices. We carry the weight of our regrets. We carry the weight of trying to be good, of trying to serve and care for a family, a community, a workplace, or a ministry.

Jesus knew this about our human condition. He knew grief. He felt heartache.  He wept with those who wept. He knelt and spoke softly to a woman caught in shame and fear. He sought out a lonely man hiding in a tree. He knew life could wear us down. He knew serving, caring, and leading came with insecurities and disappointments. He invited the people he walked with to find rest. He offered a “light burden” and an “easy yoke.” I think Christ makes the same offer to us today. 

He knows we will experience heartache, but he invites us into a life that can also be joyful.  He knows we will carry burdens, but he invites us into a life that can also be free.  He invites us to hold life in a way that makes sense. His desire is for you and I to live with a light heart.

Full, Active, and Light

A full soul, an active mind, and a light heart. That’s what I want for my life. That’s what I want for my family and friends. That’s what I want for the wonderful people I work with.  That's what I want for the ministries I serve. That's what I want for you.

I think that's what Jesus wants for us.

Thank You

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