SOUL REPAIR

Mom didn't own a firearm, but it still felt like she had me at gunpoint as she forced me to memorize

Psalm 23. I was 9 years old, and every nine-year-old in the church-I-hated-going-to had to memorize

all six verse of Psalm 23. Six verses! But mom had that imaginary gun, so I mumbled my way through

sheep and pastures and valleys and tables finally punctuated by forever.

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Fast-forward over 50 years, and the single-most impactful passage of Scripture in my life is that

Psalm. In the wee hours of anxious nights, I repeat its words and am assured the Lord is shepherding

me. When there's too much month at the end of the money, I'm confident of green pastures to eat in.

When my heart thirsts for meaning and purpose, I'm reminded He knows where the really good,

safe water is.

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And my soul gets restored.

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Souls are interesting things. I'm captivated by the fact God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. The soul is that which God created; it is that which makes you YOU, and me me. It's that which God Himself drew close enough to my lifeless form and breathed into it. A living soul.

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Which sometimes gets tarnished and bruised and forgotten and ignored.

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So God leads me along a path He knows best, and in the process can fix what's broken and abused in my soul.

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This transformation is God-work. It's not something I do. But I know when I again pledge allegiance to the King, declare He is The Shepherd and I am His sheep, He does what only He can do. As the Creator of me - me, a living soul -  He knows how to restore me.

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When I've sinned. When I've strayed. When I've fallen ill. When I've lost hope.

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He restores and repairs me, a soul.