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Welcome to our sixth season of the Soul Care Conversations Podcast! Steve is anchoring the season with a thoughtful discussion on our theme of Complex Conversations – and how these conversations can help us buffet the fierce winds that are blowing in our lives. It’s all in learning to live with our soul and mind, while trying to find, with each other, foundational places where we can anchor ourselves. It’s a great discussion and introduction to what this season will be about.
Also included is a reading from our new devotional, 365 Days with the Potter, which will be launching this fall with our new Potter’s Inn App!
I have come to the woods,
here I find the solace I am longing for.
I have come to the woods,
here I find the solace I am longing for.
In the bleak and empty winter,
the barren trees are the bones, the skeleton that upholds me
This landscape is my innerscape.
My inner forest is just as bare.
Stripped by pandemic fear, angst and survival
the brutal winds had wreaked such havoc.
I lost my way, I lost my why.
Something stolen, others laid aside forgotten.
I stand here naked,
I am exposed like these old bare boned limbs.
I am welcomed here-my bones meet their bones.
I belong with these trees.
These trees are my brothers and sisters, my family.
Why, then, would I leave this place?
Am I bartering pilgrimage for permanence?
The pathway here is within.
The well-worn trail to the kingdom within,
this forested innerscape of glory.
That is my true home.
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work. Psalm 62:11-12
Authentic, dependable love is a divine commodity – it is not something we produce. We are changed by love and in love.
Any type of personal change requires time, and needs to build on a solid base. The only foundation for all change is love. God’s love is what soul shaping is about. God loves our clay too much to leave us the way we are right now. Embracing that the Potter is love and learning to trust in the process of the wheel work is important.
We may have to do some work on our image of God here. We may have an image of God that we’re going to get slammed, thrown to the wheel in anger by an angry God. If we don’t believe in and trust God’s love for us, we’ll falter and question the ongoing transformation process.
Authentic, dependable love is a divine commodity. It is not something we produce. We are changed by love and in love. This is the way the Divine Potter works. The Bible says that “love is from God” (1 John 4:7). God embodies love. It’s what God does. God offers this love to us, without reserve or limitation. When we embrace this love, we believe in God’s goodness, concern, and involvement with us. This sounds easy, but accepting this love is challenging for us. For various reasons, we throw up barriers, misunderstand God’s intentions, or get so busy we lose our love relationship with him.
“If we want to deal with God the right way,” writes theologian Eugene Peterson, “we have to learn to love the right way. God and love can’t be separated.” Neither can God’s love and spiritual transformation.
For Reflection:
We depend on your support to carry on the ministry of Potter's Inn. Each of our ministry staff also raise their own financial support for salaries to serve with our team.
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