How is it with your soul?

How are you doing? How is your heart? How is your sleep? Are you able to name the biggest weight you are carrying right now?  Or, in Methodist words, how is it with your soul?

This was how Methodists started their class meetings (do you know about class meetings? Feel free to ask!). I learned about this phrase 15 years ago when I was called into the church office to meet with the new pastor.  He asked me to sit down and as I was sitting and he was headed behind his desk to sit, he asked me, “how is it with your soul?”

When he said “your soul,” we were making eye contact. I felt so horribly vulnerable in that moment I almost threw up.  Instead, I bawled. I would have rather thrown up.  Pastor Jim sat there quietly while I pulled it together. It took a while. I apologized and he asked me, “why? That was the most honest answer I’ve ever received.”  I felt a weight lift.  It was probably the most honest I had been in a couple of years with myself. No words, just tears. A lot had happened in those two years:  deaths, tragedy, betrayals.  Too much to keep up with, and being a single mom, I had to hold it together for my son.  When I learned what was asked was a traditional “Methodist phrase,” I decided to forgive Jim for asking me that questions.  Every time I hear it, though, I go right back to his office.  It’s a check-in I do regularly with myself, with answers from “it’s all good,” to “crushing, I’ll deal with it tomorrow.” 

This season of Lent, I’m hoping we can all do a check-in with ourselves and others.  That we can ask, “how is it with my soul?” and “How is it with your soul?”  I encourage you to take the time to turn off any noise in the house and spend a few minutes intentionally sitting with God for your check-in.  If you already do this, great!  Can you add a few minutes? Can you add a second time in the day?  When the noise of the world gets loud, when life gets overwhelming or the thoughts in your head are producing too much anxiety, can you pause to think “be still?”

Psalm 46 is a beautiful psalm to sit with and pray, especially verse 10.  Go to Psalm 37 to read and pray – focus on verse 7.  Psalm 107:1-3; then, if time is limited, pick a set from 4-9, 10-16, 17-22, 23-32, 33-38, or 39-43.   There is good stuff in there and you’ll probably find something you can relate to, be it literally or metaphorically. 

Then, there is my personal favorite from Mark 4:39:  Peace! Be still!  This month, let’s find peace for our soul, take time to be still with God, and draw closer into God’s spirit.

—Pastor Jaime Rogers-Fairchild