Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You

by John Ortberg

The other disconnect is what might be called the “troublesome thought.” This soul-enemy is actually much more pervasive. It’s not necessarily a sin. It’s simply a way of thinking that does not take God into account. The troublesome thought begins with any normal concern you might have. For example, you open your quarterly statement from your 401K and notice that instead of gaining, your fund lost a few hundred dollars. Certainly reason to be concerned, but then you begin a succession of thoughts that practically consume you: Will I have enough to retire? What if the next quarter posts another loss? Should I pull my money out of this fund? By entertaining these thoughts, you are allowing something to squeeze God out of your life. It’s one thing to pay attention to your retirement account, but when you leave God out of the equation, your soul loses its connection. I do this all the time. I get disappointed about how a talk went — and then have a series of thoughts about how I’m not being successful enough and am therefore not leading well enough, not serving my people well enough. Or I sit down at my desk and am so overwhelmed at all that needs to be done that I fixate on how hard I’m going to have to work, how I may have to work through lunch, how it seems like all I do is work.