Soul Care and Creating Margin

1. Soul Care and Creating Margin Loneliness of soul is a common theme in the literature on mid-career transitions in ministry

2. Soul Care and Creating Margin • lack of margin is a major contributor to loneliness of soul.

3. Soul Care and Creating Margin • lack of margin is a major contributor to loneliness of soul. • The activism that characterizes evangelicalism tends to eat away at margin.

4. Soul Care and Creating Margin • lack of margin is a major contributor to loneliness of soul. • The activism that characterizes evangelicalism tends to eat away at margin. • We feel we always have to be accomplishing something. After all, what are we going to put in our prayer letter?

5. Soul Care and Creating Margin • lack of margin is a major contributor to loneliness of soul. • The activism that characterizes evangelicalism tends to eat away at margin. • We feel we always have to be accomplishing something. After all, what are we going to put in our prayer letter? • Margin is not goofing off or loafing.

6. Soul Care and Creating Margin • lack of margin is a major contributor to loneliness of soul. • The activism that characterizes evangelicalism tends to eat away at margin. • We feel we always have to be accomplishing something. After all, what are we going to put in our prayer letter? • Margin is not goofing off or loafing. • It is scheduling time to refresh yourself physically, socially, and spiritually.

7. Soul Care and Creating margin • Creating margin is a constant disciple of saying no to good things in order to focus on the best things.

8. Soul Care and Creating margin • Creating margin is a constant disciple of saying no to good things in order to focus on the best things. • It must be practiced daily.

9. Soul Care and Creating margin • Creating margin is a constant disciple of saying no to good things in order to focus on the best things. • It must be practiced daily. • Soul care will suffer if we do not create margin in our schedules.

10. Soul Care and Creating margin • Creating margin is a constant disciple of saying no to good things in order to focus on the best things. • It must be practiced daily. • Soul care will suffer if we do not create margin in our schedules. • Ministry activities are not the only thing that can encroach on margin. Hobbies, sports, and even family can keep us so busy that we become frazzled.

11. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 will be our text for these two sessions.

12. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 will be our text for these two sessions. • From this Psalm Martin Luther developed his right way to study theology through Prayer, Meditation, and trial.

13. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 will be our text for these two sessions. • From this Psalm Martin Luther developed his right way to study theology through Prayer, Meditation, and trial. • Meditation is central since prayer prepares for meditation and meditation is lived out in trial.

14. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 will be our text for these two sessions. • From this Psalm Martin Luther developed his right way to study theology through Prayer, Meditation, and trial. • Meditation is central since prayer prepares for meditation and meditation is lived out in trial. • These three themes are not only the right way to study theology but are the right way to care for our soul.

15. Soul Care and Creating Margin • David Wells writes: … prayer is a many-sided expression of a God-centered life. Being God-centered in one’s life is essential to being God-centered in one’s thoughts. This God-centeredness is the sine qua non of good theology, for, without it, it is impossible to think our thoughts after God, which is what defines good theology. Prayer and theology, therefore, require the total orientation of the person – heart, mind, and will – to God. Theology without trusting, submissive prayer is no longer good theology; it is merely an academic exercise which may itself pose as a substitute for the process of knowing God.

16. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Meditation is anchored in the Word of God and involves the whole person- mind, heart, and practice.

17. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Meditation is anchored in the Word of God and involves the whole person- mind, heart, and practice. • The puritan, Edmund Calamy writes, “Meditation must enter into three doors, or else it will never do you any good. 1. It must get into the door of the understanding, … 2. It must get into the door of thy heart, and of thy affections … 3. The door of thy conversation; for thy meditation must not rest in the affections; but it must likewise have influence into thy conversation, to make thy conversation more holy; thou must so meditate of God as to walk as God walks; and so to meditate of Christ as to prize him, and to live in obedience to him.”

18. Soul Care and Creating margin • Meditation “is the reading, studying, contemplation, and inner digestion of the Holy Scripture.”

19. Soul Care and Creating margin • Meditation “is the reading, studying, contemplation, and inner digestion of the Holy Scripture.” • Wells notes further: Reflection is, in fact, the soil in which our loves, hopes, and fears all grow. If we never took thought, we would never fear anything, love anyone, or hope anything … Reflection is how the truth of God first takes root in us, how it is first to be “owned” by us as its interpreters, and how it owns us as we interpret it.

20. Soul Care and Creating margin • Trials are the experiences of life that test the application of God’s word.

21. Soul Care and Creating margin • Trials are the experiences of life that test the application of God’s word. • In large part they are things that happen to us.

22. Soul Care and Creating margin • Trials are the experiences of life that test the application of God’s word. • In large part they are things that happen to us. • They include the everyday activities and relationships that provide opportunity to live out God’s word.

23. Soul Care and Creating margin • Soul care is comprehensive.

24. Soul Care and Creating margin • Soul care is comprehensive. • It is both personal and social.

25. Soul Care and Creating margin • Soul care is comprehensive. • It is both personal and social. • It is deeply relational.

26. Soul Care and Creating margin • Soul care is comprehensive. • It is both personal and social. • It is deeply relational. • We are made for relationship with God and fellow human beings.

27. Soul Care and Creating margin • Soul care is comprehensive. • It is both personal and social. • It is deeply relational. • We are made for relationship with God and fellow human beings. • These relationships cannot be compartmentalized.

28. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 celebrates the Word of God as central to soul care.

29. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 celebrates the Word of God as central to soul care. • Franz Delitzsch comments on this psalm, “In our German version it has the appropriate inscription, ‘the Christian’s golden A B C of the praise, love, power, and use of the word of God;’ for here we have set forth in inexhaustible fullness what the word of God is to a man, and how a man is to behave himself in relation to it.”

30. Soul Care and Creating margin • Psalm 119 celebrates the Word of God as central to soul care. • Franz Delitzsch comments on this psalm, “In our German version it has the appropriate inscription, ‘the Christian’s golden A B C of the praise, love, power, and use of the word of God;’ for here we have set forth in inexhaustible fullness what the word of God is to a man, and how a man is to behave himself in relation to it.” • Woven throughout this psalm is trust in God’s Word through prayer, meditation, and trial in the midst of life’s circumstances. Here we find soul care firmly anchored in God’s Word.

31. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:1-8God’s Word is the guide for joyful living and dealing with shame in this fallen world.

32. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:1-8God’s Word is the guide for joyful living and dealing with shame in this fallen world. • Verses 1-4 the guide for joyful living.

33. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:1-8God’s Word is the guide for joyful living and dealing with shame in this fallen world. • Verses 1-4 the guide for joyful living. • Verses 5-8 the guide for dealing with shame.

34. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:169-172Living in the light of God’s word brings understanding and deliverance.

35. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:169-172Living in the light of God’s word brings understanding and deliverance. • This final stanza of the psalm begins with a prayer for understanding. Verse 169, 171,172.

36. Soul Care and Creating Margin • Psalm 119:169-172Living in the light of God’s word brings understanding and deliverance. • This final stanza of the psalm begins with a prayer for understanding. Verse 169, 171,172. • The rest of the stanza is a plea for deliverance.

37. Soul Care and Creating Margin • In the first and last stanzas of this great Psalm we see that the application of God’s word will bring deep happiness. But rather than a legalistic works-righteousness, the application of God’s word reveals our need for God’s help. God’s word exposes us as wondering lost sheep yet gloriously shows us that God is the one who seeks, delivers and saves us by his own power and righteousness.