Bottom line up front: Soul Investment
Illustration: One of my favorite illustrations follows. You may’ve heard it before. It remains for me one of the powerful anecdotes I know: “Charles Francis Adams, nineteenth-century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered, “Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted.” His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary that is still in existence. On the same day he made this entry: Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!” (quoted in Making Sense of Your World, W. Gary Phillips, William E. Brown, and John Stonestreet, p. 234).
Teaching: Do we recognize the delicate responsibility we have to invest in the souls of men? It’s clear we address the externals of folks. We PT; we tend to the visible elements, etc. But what about the inner man, the spirit, the soul, the persons we are when we’re most ourselves?
Encouragement: I bet when we reflect on those who mean the most to us, I would venture to say that those who mean the most to us are the ones who feed our souls. For me, it was often my grandparents. They’ve since passed on, but their impact remains. I think of some professors, too, with whom I clicked; they invested in me, and I worked hard to please them. I think, too, of fellow elders-pastors, with whom I’ve deep spiritual kinships. I think of men who’ve served nobly in uniform and/or still serve today–men that influence me via their testimony. My list, like yours, could go on and on. The point? May we be a people who speak to others’ souls—not just to their veneers.
MIND & MATTERS 
We’ve lost so much of our desire and/or ability to pour into people the more our society has become one of sound bites and “140 characters or less.” The pace of life squeezes out the meaningful moments in the front porch swing over iced tea or the deep conversation over a home-cooked meal. I long for simpler times and deeper relationships, as many do. I miss the slower pace of life that allowed margin for playing games and cooking grand meals, indulging in theatre or losing oneself in a good book. I relish the moments that echo days long gone where people were more than just happy snapshots on social media! How different would our world be if more of us took the time to invest in each other, to know and be known, to love and be loved?
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