soul restoring

There are often almost hidden patterns running through my days.

Common themes which seem to tie the day together as it were.

Today it's worked in a backward direction. The Guild were meeting tonight, the first one in their new session: and I was due to speak.

The Guild started out as the Woman's Guild, and though they've dropped the gender designation and opened their doors to one and all, it's still pretty much an older woman's thing. And they always value the chance to get out and the time that they share together.

Anyway. They always have a 'theme' each year and I was to speak on the theme.

"He restores my soul."

Words that were pinched from David. The shepherd boy who rose to fame on the back of his beating Goliath. A guy whose faith in God was very much along at the highly effective end of the spectrum of what goes for 'faith'.

But he had his moments. As we all do. And he needed his soul restored.

The soul is the bit deep inside of us all, which is pretty much the core of who we are. The 'me'.

The bit we sometimes try and hide. Or shield, perhaps is better. Since it's quite a fragile thing.

And even at the best of times can take a bit of a hammering. So that it needs restoring.

Mostly every day. And sometimes pretty radically.

So I've been thinking a bit about that today.

Restoring the soul. The need for it. And the ways the Lord does it.

A lot of my time, I realise, is spent with folk doing effectively this. Restoring the soul.

In all sorts of ways the soul takes quite a battering. And all sorts of things from the past have often sort of bruised and crushed the soul and made it really hide away, recoiling in a deep, unspoken pain, from where it sends out signals of distress.

The business of restoring a soul can sometimes take a long, long time. It's a delicate task and it can't be rushed.

So I spoke a bit about that tonight to the ladies of the Guild. They seemed to find it helpful. Some came up and said how very much they'd needed what I'd said.

Another lady said that if anyone could make her a Christian then I could. Which made me feel good. (Until I stopped and reflected a bit and wondered why this lady whom I'd always thought was Christian was saying that!)

I'd been out seeing folk as well today in connection with a funeral later this week. The lady who'd died was 90 or so and her next of kin was her sister from another part of town.

Sometimes grief occasions the need for this restoring of the soul. And that takes time as well.

And most days for myself as well, at the end of the day I'm needing my soul restored.

Today's no exception! And so at its end I'm getting alone with the Lord to allow him to do his work.