Self-Care vs. Soul Care

One of my personal disciplines is reading a spiritual book each morning, ideally for about 10 to 15 minutes. I typically read the book using the Kindle app on my phone. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been re-reading John Ortberg’s book Soul Keeping. His book helped get me thinking about the difference between self-care and soul care.

There’s a big difference between the two. In a humorous way, Jim Gaffigan touches on the difference in a bit he does about mirrors at the gym. He wonders why they are there. He notes, “I don’t want to look at myself while I work out; it’s why I am going to the gym.” He then makes fun of people that like to look at something. He says, “If I am going to be working out, I want to be looking at something… like myself. I want to look at myself, while I work on myself.” (You can find the bit here if you want a laugh. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JM51MEvWPtQ)

The self is by very definition selfish. The self puts us at the center, which is not what should be at the center of our lives. I say “should” but I don’t mean simply in a moral sense, but also in a practical one. We can’t handle the self at the center. When the self is at the center, we lose control of ourselves. We give in to our unhealthy desires. When the self is at the center our lives are ruled by worry, fear, anxiety, anger, bitterness, cynicism. We can’t handle ourselves at the center because that’s not how we are designed.

The Christian life is a constant challenge to move God to the center of our existence. It’s a challenge for sure; because of our fallen nature, we constantly put ourselves at the center. Every day is a challenge not to re-center ourselves but to re-center on God. A very practical way to do that is to examine our self-talk and actually change our self-talk into something else.

John Ortberg writes:

“In our day, we talk a lot about self-talk…In the Bible, people talk to their souls. The difference between talking to yourself and talking to your soul is that the soul exists in the presence of God. So you will see in the Psalms and elsewhere people speaking to their souls because when you speak to the soul, it naturally turns to prayer because in the soul God is always present” (Soul Keeping, p. 88).

The soul always exists under God’s presence. When I am reminded that I have a soul, it reminds me that my center should be God. As Ortberg notes, the Psalms encourage us to talk to our soul. We are to ask questions such as, “Why are you downcast, my soul?” (Psalm 42:12). We command the soul, “Bless the Lord, my soul” (Psalm 103:1).

The next time you find yourself agitated, worrying, or upset about a leadership issue or a church issue in the week ahead, don’t talk to yourself about it; talk to your soul. “Soul, why are you worried? Soul, why are you trying to carry this on your own? Soul, bless the Lord.” This will put God at the center of your life, which is where he belongs. As you put God at the center, you will find greater peace and the solutions that you seek.

Rooting for you,
Tom