“You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40
When Jesus was asked what is the one greatest commandment, He answered with two commandments that are cited above. The first is that we love God with all that we are: heart and soul and mind. The second commandment is that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Love God, take care of yourself and take care of others. That is a good summary of what Jesus was saying.
So how do we live these commandments in our lives? How do we love God, take care of ourself and take care of others? That is a part of “soul-training.”
In our Sunday sermons on “The Good & Beautiful Community,” there have been weekly soul-training exercises that are intended to help each of us to train our souls in living these commandments out in our everyday lives. Over the weeks we have:
- Practiced Lectio Divina (Divine Reading)
- Treasured other people as a treasure
- Shared hope with another person
- Remembering the 6 invitations from The Clay Pot Church
- Doing the “2 x 4” Challenge: 2 hours with God and 4 acts of kindness (Acts of kindness can be peculiar)
- Reflecting on the Lord’s Supper
Some of these soul training acts are experiences to help in our relationship with God, others are experiences to help in our relationship with others. These are just a few of the spiritual training exercises that we can integrate into our lives so that we might live out the two commandments that Jesus wanted us to live. There are others that could be added and there is a list of things that we should do to help care for ourselves.
Let me encourage you to come up with a Soul Training Plan and then share it with another person who will help to hold you accountable. It is all a part of our journey as disciples of Jesus.