SoulShift #1: Me to You

The first soul shift is from being self-focused to being focused on others. Widowed Ruth exemplified this shift, as her most logical option, according to human wisdom, would have been to return to her own family in Moab instead of taking care of her also widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, and becoming an immigrant in Israel.

I have to say, over the last few years, I have been more like Orpah (self-focused) than Ruth, but I have not always been this way. I spent my late teens and twenties investing my life in teenagers (as a youth pastor), caring for an AIDs patient, being a live-in care giver for a person with cerebral palsy, and working toward adopting two children, but upon graduating Bible college, and finding myself unable to: attend seminary, be hired on full-time as a youth pastor, pursue ordination, nor move up in my in secular job, I felt I had reached a boundary. In order to break through that wall, I quit my job, resigned my ministry, moved, and went back to college, full-time, for the first time in my life. I essentially spent the next few years focused on myself, so that I could actually get into a position to serve others again.

I do not think my college break went against the example of Ruth, even she took a short rest in the shelter (Ruth 2:7). Ruth’s temptation came when Boaz invited her to come and eat with the harvesters. She had already worked hard all morning, and had food left over from lunch. It would have been very easy to quit for the day, but instead she got up to glean, and did so until evening (Ruth 2:15-17). I think my short break got extended. Even though I have still been continuously actively involved in ministry, what has been my focus? I earned my second BA. I got married. I got a new job. I got ordained. I started attending seminary. I had a child. None of these are bad things. In fact, all these things opened doors for me to better serve you, but have I walked through those doors? I think I need a soul shift.

I think one key to avoiding burnout in being other-focused is having our expectations focused in the right place. In an ideal world according to human standards, if I focus on my wife and not on myself, then she will focus on me taking care of my needs. The same would be true of my friends, neighbors, employer, nation, and world, but care is often, in fact usually, not reciprocal. The example from Ruth is not that Ruth focused on Naomi so Naomi and Boaz in turn focused on her. That is what we see, but the truth behind the words is that Ruth focused Naomi and God (Ruth 1:16-17), and so God focused on her. Now I must answer the question of “How might God be calling me to shift from Me to You in the coming year?” (SoulShift, 44).

My reflections as I read through SoulShift by Steve DeNeff and David Drury.