Let life blossom according to its own designs

Travis of Salado United Methodist Church blogs "Cultivating a soulful life" today. He begins, "Soul is a word we don’t hear much about anymore. With the advent of psychology, soul somehow just got lost in the shuffle of a new way of looking at human beings and what makes us tick... Soulful is our word of the week for our church as we begin this season of Lent. Soulful is a word that means the expression of deep longing and deep feeling. Understood as such it only logically follows then that soulful living begins with the inside of who we are."

After sharing Plato's expression techne tou biou, translated as "the craft of life," Travis writes about the values of craftmanship in his description of a master furniture maker he met in Belaize. Then he writes, "There is a symbiotic relationship between the one doing the crafting and the object being crafted. Soul is what we are seeking to allow God to craft in us. It is who we are and there is only one craftsman who can craft us in the beauty of who we are to become." He also quotes Thomas Moore: "the act of entering into the mysteries of the soul, without sentimentality or pessimism, encourages life to blossom forth according to its own designs and with its own unpredictable beauty."

Travis suggests, "As we journey this Lent together just make yourself available to the craftsman. Set aside the time, join in our community, listen to the movement of God’s spirit, surrender to the work God longs to do with you and me, let go of the unnecessary stuff that would get in the way of God working deeply in us."