The “Maddie” in All of Us

Good morning,

Being a Minnesotan, we talk about and are grateful for wonderful weather. Yesterday and today are perfect examples where everyone you see comments on how beautiful the day is. It lifts your spirit and brings so many smiles. We don’t take beautiful, sunny, warm days for granted. Four seasons are such a gift and such a trial all at the same time. You honestly feel your spirit react. I am reading a book titled, Soul Keeping: Caring For The Most Important Part of You, by John Ortberg. It starts with an introduction by Dr. Henry Cloud who was a clinical director at a psychiatric hospital, describing the staff meetings he would have on Wednesdays with doctors, psychologists, nurses, therapists, art and music therapists, and group therapists to go over their patients’ treatments and action plans to help.

He described how he loved these meeting as a rich time of seeing a dedicated group of professionals come together and truly care for, discuss, and plan goodness for the people they were trying to help. They celebrated patients’ successes, breakthroughs, and the like and agonized over their difficulties and misfortunes. It was one of the best examples of community love… people bringing their gifts together in the service of others. They cheered when Sarah had a breakthrough. Alex had family issues, Susan was gearing up for discharge… all of them hopeful Alex , Sarah, and Susan would be fine.

Then came time to talk about Maddie. Everyone’s expression changed. “Fell” would be a better word. Why? Maddie was a very difficult person to like. She was off-putting. It seemed that something was always wrong with others, with the world around her, even with us who were trying to help her. Her husband was all too familiar with being the one who was always “wrong” as well.

Everyone looked to her main psychologist and he said, “Well, it seems that Maddie still has no interest in having an interior life.”

Her attitudes, her hurts, her strengths, her patterns of thinking and behaving, or not trusting and not risking, her spiritual life, and maybe most of all, her avoidance of embracing her real suffering and the courage to resolve it.

The team, as a result, shared the same lack of hope for her. As long as she was not going to embrace her interior life, we all knew that her life was not going to change much at all.

The above is just the foreword in this book. I know that reading my Bible, reading devotionals, watching sermons, listening to great Christ filled music affects my interior life! As Jesus said, it is my real life, and I do not want to lose it. Now, or in the eternal future. That is the part of me that gets knowledge, wisdom, hope, love. That is where I get the feelings of a beautiful day! I don’t take my joy and peace for granted. I know my soul is as much in need of food as my body. I know my soul is eternal and I am the only one who gets to live in that kind of wonderful.

My exterior is important–work, play, family, clothes, house, car, hobbies, friends, etc… But my soul is most important. I can slow down, not chase after external things to make me happy. They just add to my fun and joy.

I have to live with me first and then I get to be an adder in other people’s lives!

Love you, Teri