Every crisis in mid-life (and in any season of life) is brought on not by what has happened to us, but by what we think about what has happened to us.
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)
We middle-agers are old pros at defying this Biblical wisdom. We guard our diets, we carefully monitor our carbs, we guard our 401K's, and we guard our "family time".
But life is found in none of those things. In fact, a heart that is sick will adversely affect every single other area of our living...because out of your heart flows the direction of your life. It is time to stop cleaning up the outside of the cup, like the good religious legalists we tend to be in mid-life.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (Matthew 23)
All transformation of the God-sort, happens from the inside out, never from the outside in.
Soul-care is the work of a lifetime. It is daily, and it is prosaic and pragmatic and intensely practical. Soul-care is not mystical. It is less about spending hours and hours "with God" (though that is good, if you have that kind of time) and more about taking out the spiritual and emotional trash every. single. day.
Sometimes, on a heavy-cleaning day, you will have to take out the emotional trash many times in one day. But everyone has to take out the trash at least once, every day.
Repeat after me: this is good. This is normal.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. (Proverbs 14:4)
If there is no trash, you aren't living life, you aren't making progress. If you haven't been taking out the trash...well, your soul is a mess, I promise you.
Hey, I am in no position to judge. I'm stuck in the middle with you.
Let's clean it up. Together.
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