Recently, I mentioned that our lives take us through seasons. We are all coming quickly upon the holiday season. It begins with Thanksgiving and we continue on right through to the new year.

Generally, the holiday calls for a time to reflect on the goodness in our lives. We take the time, or we should, to appreciate our blessings; to acknowledge all the things in our lives that make our lives worth living. It becomes, if we let it, an opportunity to recognize the things that really matter.

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of having lunch with a very important person. I’m talking, this lady is tops. But earlier that morning, I sat in a meeting full of other important people. As I looked around the room, I couldn’t help comparing them to the woman I would meet later for lunch. These were top brass people. Some might even call them ladder climbers. Okay, that’s what I call them.

Self.

Important.

People.

These are people with quite a bit to lose. People who have climbed so high, that one misstep could send them plummeting into the corporate abyss, never to be heard from again.

I looked around the room and couldn’t help thinking about truly important things. Most of the time the things we spend our time and energy on, are not actually all that important. I thought about the woman with whom I was going to have lunch.

My friend, Cindy, leads the women’s ministry of our church and in effect, is responsible for the spiritual development of more than 20,000 women. Now that’s what I call important. She’s not scratching and climbing to get anywhere. She’s too busy leading the women of our church on a fantastic spiritual journey. I love that she is leading me, too, to live for what is really important.

This has been quite a year for me. Early on, I felt akin to the Israelites before Moses happened along. Four hundred years and no salvation, no change, little hope. It was a season. I knew God was up to something, though, and I waited patiently upon him. In his time, he made a move on my behalf, and a new season came along. I followed him. I am learning to follow him. It’s mostly a new concept for me. So often in my life I tend to run ahead and impatiently urge God to get the move on. But I am learning that life tends to be far more productive if I let him go ahead of me.

When my second son was little, we put him in swim lessons. Everything was going great until the teacher wanted him to swim in the deep water. He was having none of that. He was perfectly content to stay in the shallow end. He wasn’t quite ready to brave the depths. Sometimes, our spiritual life can be like that. We prefer cool soundbites and pithy sayings over exploring a deeper faith. Going deeper is uncomfortable. Unfamiliar. We fear the spiritual disciplines that will feed our souls.

I am following, and God is leading me into a deeper understanding of this life and how it can impact the next one. If we are not careful, we can become so fixated on what this life has to offer, that we lose ourselves to the eternal things. We feed our emotions and our physical cravings, and our neglected souls whither. We are supposed to wear this life like a loose garment. We are just passing through. We have to learn to allow the things of this life help feed our souls, instead of starving them. Its usually a matter of our focus. It’s an ability to decide what truly matters, and what actually does not. Do you have an eternal focus? It will change everything.

What are you feeding your soul? 

What is your soul food?