The human soul runs deep and is often very mysterious. Many deep desires and feelings, nagging thoughts, recurring dreams, fantasies, and the like can get stirred and are difficult to make sense of. And it often seems like our soul has important secrets locked away that we cannot figure out how to access.
In our daily life everything might seem fine and there’s nothing in particular to complain about. We might have a good job and be surrounded by family and friends who love us deeply. But in quiet moments we sense there’s something not quite settled in our souls, which might be difficult to even name.
For instance, we might have secret desires we’ve never shared with anyone or recurrent fantasies that seem too shameful to admit. And part of us might wish we could just ignore these deep movements of our soul; they’re disruptive and seem incompatible with the life we’re currently living.
But the more we try to ignore them the more they seem to stick around and grow in intensity.
A better approach is learning to befriend these deep movements – accepting and taking them seriously, though not always literally. They are clues to unlocking our soul and discovering more of the life God has for us.
For example, a sexual fantasy might have nothing to do with sex per se. It might instead reveal our need to integrate more wildness, passion, and life-giving power into our daily life. And when we ignore this we remain tame and impotent rather than learning how to bring more life and goodness into the world.
We find greater freedom and life by using the fantasy to unlock the deeper parts of our soul – neither ignoring nor blindly indulging in the fantasy itself.
In the end, your soul has many mysteries to reveal. Find your trusted others to help you unlock your soul and discover more of the freedom and life God has for you.
Photo by Hunter Newton on Unsplash
