Managing Your Image or Your Soul? 

In the book, “Replenish – Leading from a Healthy Soul”, author Lance Witt quotes a gentleman he met who said, “The older I get, the less concern I have with what I have or have not done and the more concern I have for what I have or have not become.”

What are you concerned with right now?

Is becoming successful driving you?

Are you taking care of your soul along the way?

And what comes first – the drive for success, the achievements, prosperity, notoriety or the inner you?

One of my first jobs was working as a sales clerk at an accessories store in a large mall.  If my mood was a bit off or if I felt a little under the weather, I had to put on a good face. My image had to be what my employer and my customers expected in order to keep them all happy.  And while my “outside” image appeared pulled together, my soul was not.

Does your inside support your outside?

That unseen side of you has to be considered very important and taken care of otherwise there’s a real danger of collapse.  What is it in us that for a while goes unnoticed by others (and sometimes unnoticed by us) that begins to seep into our outside image?

Is it the suffering and pain we keep to ourselves that we believe our friends or family might not be able to cope with or understand?  Whether the pain is from a traumatic event or from the hiding of secrets, sins, our insecurities,  “hiding” is what we do in order to keep our image intact.  However, the pressure of concealing what is happening on the inside eventually becomes impossible and it can take a real toll on us.

It really is like leading a double life.

So, how about taking a moment with me to do a health check of your all important soul?  What is it that remains a threat to your spiritual health?  Do you take time everyday to feed your spirit?

Do you confess your sins to God (unloading the baggage) with the full intention of turning from them?

God made you with a definite plan for your life.  Have you discovered what that plan is yet?  I have to tell you, as scary as it is to begin the discovery of your purpose in life, it’s also a lot of fun.

Give yourself that space for discovery but also give yourself the gift of time to rest and restore.  You know, our doctors recommend we have an annual physical, yet we sometimes forget about the need for a spiritual check-up.

When’s the last time you gave yourself a tune-up?