Sacred Soul Sisters

“The world conspires against our souls, keeping our lives superficial. ‘Superficiality,’ said Richard Foster, ‘is the curse of our age.’ The desperate need of the soul is not for intelligence, nor talent, nor yet excitement; just depth…My soul becomes shallow when my interests and thoughts go no further than myself. A person should be deep because life itself is deep. A deep soul has the capacity to understand and empathize deeply with other people–not just himself. A deep soul notices and questions and doesn’t just go through the motions. A deep soul lives in conscious awareness of eternity, not simply today. It notices and observes and reflects in surprising ways–we talk about a person of ‘hidden depths.’

A soul especially has depth when it is connected to God.”–John Ortberg, Soulkeeping

I’ve been digging into this book lately, and have found so many thoughts confirming a stirring in my heart (dare I say a stirring in my soul?) over the past many years. Digging deep is almost counter-cultural right now (seriously, people don’t quite know what to do when you dig deeper than the superficial pleasantries), and yet, it is what we were created for. It is something our souls crave, and many eventually recognize as refreshing, albeit awkward for many to receive at first–such a shame we have been so far removed from it for so long).

I don’t remember exactly when I finally began surrendering to this craving…when I quit trying so hard to “fit in” with clumsy attempts at small talk (which has often felt superficial and unnatural)…but I know that as I began to be more comfortable with my own soul’s wiring, my own soul’s longing, I realized I longed to know others on a deeper, soul level, that sought to dig far more deeply than the weather or other temporal things.

Since then, I’ve been so blessed by some particularly sweet friendships with kindred spirited sisters…or shall I rephrase that to read “kindred-souled” sisters?

My heart and my soul feel free, comfortable, at ease with them. We can share a meal, a coffee, or simply a few moments together in a parking lot and we can dig DEEP and not scare one another. We can ponder things of eternity.

We can dig into sharing REAL life together. We can dig into PRAYING for one another, oh so often on the spot, as we recognize the need. We can dig into our very real struggles with fears, doubts, or worries, or we can dig into the thrilling ways we have uncovered amazing facets of God through His Word or how we have seen Him at work in various ways all around us.

Sacred conversations. Soul conversations. It matters not WHAT the topic(s) are in our time together, but that we are able to share these times together every so often, and thus spur one another on to continue to grow up in Him, to continue to seek His direction, to continue to seek to honor and glorify Him, and to continue to seek to surrender to His leading in sacred obedience.

Tonight, I’m thanking God for my soul sister conversations, and the way He has given them to me in His perfect provision and care. And I’m praying for others to be able to surrender to a soul-refreshing friendship such as this for themselves. I’m praying for others to surrender to the craving of their souls to share more than pleasantries with others, to share deep, life-impacting things, and find themselves living more fully than they ever have before.

“You are only able to live in a way that really helps and loves others when your soul feels its worth.”–John Ortberg