[Start transcript] [Begin Announcement]
Before we dive into today's topic, I want to personally invite you to something special - and completely free. I am hosting a five-week online Faith and Soul Care Retreat, and it’s all happening inside my private Facebook group.
Each week, starting this Wednesday, May 28th, I’ll be teaching live on a powerful soul care topic. I’ll be teaching live at 7:00 p.m. Central, but there will be replays that will stay up - and they will only be inside this group. The videos will not be posted on the blog, they won’t be on YouTube or anywhere else.
[Listen to this blog article on the Faith & Soul Care Podcast:]
Here’s some of what we will be covering:
The first week, we’re talking about somatic practices that I’m going to take you through to help you release stress—it might even be years or decades worth of stress that’s just stored up in your body. And when you release this stress, your energy will be restored. I mean, if that was the only thing we learned, it’d be worth it just to tune in for this free retreat.
But we’re going to be doing more. One session is going to be about motivation techniques—how do we trick ourselves (really, that’s what it is) to motivate ourselves? It’s called brain priming, and it’s a technique you can use to help actually want to do the things you know you should be doing but have been putting off and procrastinating.
Then, one of the sessions will focus on effective prayer methods and journaling tools. And yes, even if you don’t like to journal or don’t want to journal, we’re going to talk about alternate ways to do it if you don’t want to sit down and write it all out.
Another session will be about how to declutter our thoughts and emotions so that you can renew your mind, fill up with God’s truth, and live daily out of that truth.
This retreat is for you if you feel like you’ve just been going through the motions of life --maybe feeling a little disconnected and just wanting to enjoy life more. We’re going to get unstuck, feel better, and live with more purpose day by day.
I am so excited! This is going to be such a wonderful way to start off the summer. So go get into that Facebook group! To join the Facebook group, you can go on Facebook and search Sherry’s Online Faith and Soul Care Retreat. Or you can click the link here if you’re reading this—the link will also be down in the show notes of this podcast episode.
[End of Announcement]
What Does the Soul Do?
Does it have some sort of job?
I’m also going to go into some other deep thoughts about soul care and soulkeeping. A lot of what I share with you today comes from John Ortberg’s book Soulkeeping. It’s a really good book -- one that I recommend because it’s comprehensive but also simple to understand, and a fairly quick read.
I’m going to share quotes from his book and what they teach us about what the soul does, how we tend to it, and why it matters.
You see, there’s a quiet ache in many of us. It’s a longing for peace, for rest, for a taste of joy -- something deeper than just the surface day-to-day living.
In his book Soulkeeping -- which I return to again and again -- Ortberg speaks gently to that inner aching. The words stir deep thoughts about what it means to actually care for the soul --not in a romanticized or mystical way, but in a grounded and daily way that invites Jesus into our lives.
Here are a few quotes from Ortberg’s Soulkeeping that have stayed with me, along with how they connect with Scripture and our own practice of soul care today.
“Your soul is what integrates your will (which is your intentions), your mind (your thoughts and feelings), and your body (your face, body language, and actions) into a single life.”
This truth hits deep, because so often we compartmentalize. One part of us is trying to obey God, another part is spiraling in anxiety, and another is just going through the motions. But the soul isn’t just a part of us -- it’s the whole of us. It’s what integrates us.
In Deuteronomy 6:5, this is called the Hebrew Shema: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” It’s not about loving God with fragments. The soul draws everything in us together so we can love God wholly.
Application question: Is my inner life aligned with my outer life?
When our inner and outer lives are aligned, that’s when we get the spark of joy. That’s when we get peace and satisfaction without even trying. Reflect: Do my thoughts, emotions, and actions reflect the same story?
When they don’t, it’s not a reason to hide or hustle harder or feel shame or retreat. It’s an invitation to gently bring all of yourself before God—for wholeness.
“The soul seeks God with its whole being because it is desperate to be whole. The soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed.”
This quote explains that if we feel empty or restless or like something is missing, it’s not because we’re broken. It’s not necessarily because we’ve done something wrong. It’s because we were made for more. Our soul was made for God. It longs for Him.
Acts 17:27 talks about how God placed all of us on the earth—every nation, every person—and knew the exact time and boundaries of where we would live. He did this so that we would seek Him. The verse even says we would fumble around for Him and find Him, even though He is not far from any of us.
I love that verse and the picture it brings. I think one of my next writings and podcast episodes is going to be on that verse.
Also, Psalm 42:1–2: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
If we aren’t reaching out for God and holding on to Him, we’re never going to find soul satisfaction anywhere else. We don’t want to numb that ache with distractions. That’s part of our problem these days—so many distractions. We have to be intentional about seeking God and taking care of our soul. Because something else will try to fill it -- and it will never satisfy like our spiritual practices that keep us close to God.
“You are not the keeper of your brother’s soul (or your family member’s soul; or anyone else’s soul.) You are the keeper of your own soul.” (Parentheses is my extension).
As women, we feel the weight of others’ needs deeply. But this quote reminds me of boundaries. As a wife, a mother, a school psychologist, and a friend -- I’m called to love. I’m not called to carry everyone’s soul.
But we do. We take on too much. We worry for other people. We worry for our children and adult children more than they worry for themselves.
In education and counseling, we often face compassion fatigue.
Galatians 6:5 says, “For each one should carry their own load.” And interestingly, just one verse before that, it says, “Carry each other’s burdens.”
There’s a distinction between carrying burdens—which are more like seasonal struggles --and carrying loads, which is just helping, helping, helping. Soulkeeping involves discerning the difference. It involves decluttering the mind of all these things we’re carrying for others, when it’s time to put them down.
With that, I’m going to close out this message. You can go back and find these quotes on the blog post at GospelLifeLearning.com. I’ll also put all three of the quotes in the show notes.
The link to the Faith and Soul Care Online Retreat Facebook Group is also in the show notes. Click on it, request to join, answer the two simple questions, and you’ll be approved.
We start this Wednesday, May 28, 2025. I’ll see you then!
Bye for now.
Gratefully,
Sherry
More Resources:
Join the author's Facebook group for the upcoming online Renew and Revive Retreat for Soul Care:
New! Prayer and Reflection Journal I Designed! I love how the journal turned out! It has all I need for prayer tracking and reflections and re-setting my mind with struggles I am facing.
If you would like to learn simple, practical ways to walk with God every single day, then you would really enjoy Closer to God: Simple Methods, Starting Today
If you need motivation to eat healthier or lose weight while also growing closer to God, then you would enjoy Weight Loss for Christians, An Extraordinarily Simple Way to Conquer Cravings
If you want to learn more deeply and fully about what Jesus taught, then you would enjoy Words of Jesus - Bible Study on Christ's Teachings
More Resource Channels:
Gospel Life Learning Instagram
Sherry Elaine - Books Authored