Write out of a Healthy Soul

“We minister best out of healthy souls.” – Tony Merida

To write from a healthy soul is a question of aim. Am I aiming to be a better writer, entrepreneur, et cetera, or am I aiming to be a pleasing aroma to God? It’s an important question to ask for I will never be the person God designed me to be if my soul is chaotic, untethered from him, unhealthy.

The question is important in another way, too—it asks where I find value and identity. Is it in my ability? Or is it in my relationship with God through Christ? To allow the former to surpass the latter is dangerous; it leads to pride, to thinking I’m adequate.

I am not adequate. I am inadequate but I have a heavenly father who is wholly adequate, who gives me what I need each and every day, who makes me a mighty warrior. When I find my adequacy—my wholeness—in him, my writing and art flourish. What deficiencies I have are inconsequential because God makes up for them. In fact, he shines through them. As Tony Merida puts it, “A person in love with Jesus is interesting even if they’re not a gifted speaker or singer.”

I would add “writer” and “artist.” I know I have some talent, but it’s a gift entrusted to me. It isn’t for my benefit alone; it never is. It is for the King of glory, his bride the church, and a world in need. Because of that, I am to use the gifts I’ve been given to proclaim him and his excellencies—that is and forever will be my greatest opportunity.

I am also to cultivate them. It is my charge as a person created in the image of God, a person given the blessing and responsibility of the pen of a ready writer. I am to write and work and worship out of a healthy soul.

Image: Elvert Barnes (Creative Commons)