Soul Work

“I am going to prepare a place for you . . . You know the way to the place where I am going.”

“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.  (John 14:1a, 4-6)

This passage reminds me of the song, “Soon and very soon, we are going…”  Because, Jesus was “going.”  But he wasn’t going as we think of it, like going to run an errand, or to get with someone.  He was going to a whole different realm — the place where the Father resides.

And this realm is so foreign, that Thomas was like, “What are you talking about?  It’s not coming up on Google Maps.”

Jesus replied to him, “I’m the map to this place.  The only way you’ll get there is through me.”

Today, what hits me about this passage is how much of a miracle it is that Jesus was going to another realm, and that this means that we can go there, too. 

But the only part of our current selves that can go to this place is our souls.

I’ve been reading a devotional about appreciating how wonderful a soul is.  It’s who you really are.  And it endures, while everything we have deteriorates, and our own bodies get creaky and give out.  I mean, our souls actually last FOREVER AND EVER.

It’s all we have that is truly ours.  Deuteronomy 10:14 says, “To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.”

We think that we have belongings – clothes, stuff, a bank account, a car, a house.  We also may have friends, a spouse, and family members.  We say, “This is my house, my husband, etc.” But everything we have actually belongs to God.  And, as Christians, the goal is to use it all for him.

This has really come home to me this week, while I’m with my dad and stepmother.  All of a sudden, I don’t have my home, or car, or any of my stuff, except what I brought with me.  I don’t have my husband, or my friends, in the way that I do when I’m with them. I don’t even have my health, because I’ve had a cold.

What I do have, that doesn’t fluctuate with circumstances, is my soul.

And Jesus came to do soul work.  He came to get our souls in shape for heaven.  He gave teachings about how to rid our souls of the bad gunk.  By the way he lived, he showed how our souls will thrive.

This is an important part of him being the Way, the Truth and the Life.

In being here and taking care of my dad, one of the hardest parts has been having this cold.  I’ve been petrified of passing my germs on to him at this time when he’s medically fragile.  I’ve been so anxious.  Also, since I haven’t felt well, my spirits have sometimes been low, dominated by gloom and doom.

It’s been a huge struggle to have faith.  I mean, is God going to make sure that my Dad doesn’t get infected by one of my stray germs? I know He doesn’t always do that.  People died from Covid. How do I believe in a good outcome?

It’s also been a huge struggle to not be overwhelmed by the shame of bringing the risk of illness to my father.

But I know that, while I need to acknowledge my mistakes and take responsibility for them, I also need to guard my soul.  I need to still have faith and hope.  I can’t let the gloom and doom, or the shame, take over.

So, where do I go to restore my soul? I go to Jesus. I remember that I’m in a covenant relationship with him, and that he’s committed to me. That really helps. I remember words he said, like, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11) I remember how he faced trials. I have hope because of the resurrection.

I’m so thankful that Jesus came to be the Way, and do soul work!  It’s beyond refreshing.  It’s a lifeline. Literally!

Pray for me, and I am praying for you.  Sending love to you all. Below are pictures of a new friend I made while I visited church, and some flowers in the neighborhood here.

The Assurance of Room

“In my Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.” John 14:2-3

I’m actually staying at my father’s house right now while he is recovering from surgery.  And he has several guest rooms, so this is a great parallel to this verse.

I’m always welcome to stay in one of these rooms.  My parents divorced, so I didn’t grow up living with my father, except every other weekend, and on visits.  But right before my sophomore year at Boston University, my housing situation fell through.  I was visiting my father and step mother, so I asked them if I could live with them and go to college in California.

“Of course,” they replied.  So I stayed there, and attended a couple of quarters at CalState LA.

This coming June, we plan to celebrate my father and stepmother’s 50^th wedding anniversary.  There will be many people in town for the celebration.  Yet I know that I will have priority for staying in one of the bedrooms of the house, if I desire it.

A good father will always have a room for their child. And, that’s what I think Jesus was telling his disciples – that no matter how many of them there were, there would certainly be a room for them in their heavenly Father’s house.

Yet, from the way that Jesus was talking, it seems that the house and the rooms weren’t ready for them yet.  It was more like they still needed to be built.  I read a great devotional on this passage once, about how a man would create a living space for his fiancée, working on building it for as long as that took, and then he would come to get her, and they would have the wedding.  This is the picture Jesus was going for here.  He was very deliberately going to create rooms.

And, just as it would be ludicrous to think that a man would take all the time to build a living space for his fiancée, but then not go to get her and marry her, it also would be crazy if we didn’t believe that Jesus is coming back to take us to our heavenly room.

Before my father’s surgery, I was talking to him, and he told me that the only thing he was looking forward to about the whole thing is that he would get to spend some time with me. That makes it easy to understand what Jesus said next, that he would welcome his disciples into his presence, when the time came. He was looking forward to being with the members of his spiritual family.

I have one more thought about this.  My brother has also been here helping out.  He’s leaving soon, and passing the baton of caring for my father to me.  But I told him, “If I had one wish, it’s that all of my family lived in one town, so I could be with them frequently.”  I don’t get to see my brother very much.  Maybe once a year.  It would be so wonderful to get to see him more, as well as my father, my father-in-law, and all of my children and grandchildren.

Surely, that was the heart of Jesus.  He had limited time with the different individuals he loved.  For him, the best thing ever was to have that place where they could all be together without time or space limitations.

I hope this devotional gives you much encouragement about Jesus’s heart and faithfulness, and about what is waiting for us.  These thoughts truly can settle our hearts, when they are troubled, just as Jesus said in the previous verse, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God.  Trust also in me.”

Sending my love to you all.