Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You [Paperback]

Stephen W. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2010

Soul Custody calls readers to pay attention to the state of their soul—and free it to thrive.

Every day, inner and outer violence ravages the soul, leaving us weak, fearful, and malnourished. In Soul Custody, Stephen W. Smith presents eight choices to help readers reclaim custody of their one and only life—choices about silence, community, vocation, honoring the body, finding one’s true self, and more. As Smith reminds readers, allowing God to shape the soul leads to the deep, full, and satisfying life that God had in mind all along.

 

This is not a self-help book. It is not a book of easy steps to a happy life. It is an invitation to the life God dreams for each of His children. It is a call to start living—to let the soul wake up to life as God intended.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Soul Custody is a clarion call – a prophetic call to do something significant with your life before it’s too late. This book points the way to real life as God intended. No one is better qualified to write on this topic than Stephen W. Smith. I highly recommend it.”

Gary Chapman, Ph.D. Author of The Five Love Languages and Love as a Way of Life

“A great, refreshing read! Soul Custody gives us the permission to live intentional lives, where we let God care for us even as we care for others. I wish I’d had it in my hands years ago. Motivating, thoughtful, really do-able, this book could set you on the life course you really long for. “

Paula Rinehart Author of Strong Women, Soft Hearts and Better Than My Dreams

“Soul Custody is more than a book title—it’s a clear, specific, and direct appeal for us to care for the part of us that’s most lasting and real. With strong, yet gentle guidance, Steve shows us how to make soul-caring choices, anchored in the vastness of God’s limitless love, that will provide strength, direction, and equilibrium to every other aspect of our life. This is a must-read for anyone convinced that there’s nothing worth more than their soul.”

Fil Anderson Author of Running on Empty and Breaking the Rules

“The God who redeemed our souls has given us the responsibility to become custodians of their care. Our souls are constantly under siege by the culture, they need to be restored and nurtured. But sadly, most of us take better care of our cars than our souls!

Steve Smith has listened to the Word and to his own needy soul and though he confesses he has come late to the process, he provides priceless counsel for taking custody of our own souls.”

Michael Card Author/Musician

“Soul Custody is filled with powerful invitations that will encourage your pursuit of an abundant life in Christ. Steve Smith brings to life the many benefits of soul guardianship and offers practical suggestions that are within-reach-realities for all who hunger for a deeper faith journey…not just for the holier-than-normal soul care experts!”

Stephen A. Macchia, D.Min. Founder and President, Leadership Transformations, Inc. Author of several books, including Becoming A Healthy Church

“Steve Smith knows what he’s talking about when he writes of Soul Custody. For many years, the ministry he and his wife lead, Potter’s Inn, has helped people care for their soul. There are few things more important than Christians, especially those who are leaders, than caring for their soul in the constant battle against burnout. This book can enhance your spiritual health.”

Bryant Wright Sr. Pastor, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Marietta, GA

“Soul Custody gave me hope for my relationship with God. Steve reminded me that I get to make choices that take me closer to God. I not only get to make those decisions, but I already am. And Soul Custody helped me to see and think through so many them. Maybe things really can change in my relationship with Him.”

Palmer Trice Director, The Barnabas Center Charlotte, NC

“We live in a world where most of us react and let life ‘happen’ to us. Stephen Smith, in his book Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You, makes us take hold of our lives and stop making excuses. Powerful and painfully pointed, it reaches to the heart. It reached to my heart.”

Jim Kallam Senior Pastor, Church of Charlotte Charlotte, NC

“I am very enthusiastic about Steve Smith’s latest book, Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You. I am grateful that he has given many years to get in touch with the souls of so many, by walking with them compassionately and listening to them well. He sounds an alarm and makes a passionate, persuasive appeal to us. He diagnosis and describes accurately and convincingly the forces in our contemporary culture that war against the health of our souls, and therefore, of our whole being. From this experience, gained firsthand in his life and that of many others, he also has learned the ways we need to become proactive in caring for our souls, that we might become the persons God created us and Christ redeemed us to be. I heartily recommend this book, both for individual use and for use in groups of those who want to walk and work together to care for the health of their souls. Thank you, Steve, for giving us this fruit of your life and ministry!!”

Douglas Stewart Director of Spiritual Formation InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

“Steve Smith has written a book that we need. Amidst the noise of Twitter, Facebook, reality television, and our drive for muchness Soul Custody calls us to a daily union with God which actually seems reachable. The good, good news that God longs for our presence and is always present for us is the message that can set us free!”

Sharon A. Hersh, M.A. Licensed Professional Counselor Author of Bravehearts, The Last Addiction, and Begin Again, Believe Again

“A must-read for worn-out Christians, Soul Custody provides the critical bridge between ‘boundaries’ and the Beatitudes. Building upon a solid foundation of Scripture and church history, the reader receives not only a blueprint for the spiritual life, but the tools to get building.”

Rev. Sara Singleton Pastor of Spiritual Formation, First Presbyterian Church Colorado Springs, CO

“Soul Custody will show you how to diagnose the state of your own soul and make some mid-course corrections. It is about learning how to live your life a different way, a “with-God” way. It is written with care, creativity and the authority of experience.”

Gary W. Moon, Ph.D. Vice President and Chair of Integration, Richmont Graduate University Author of Apprenticeship with Jesus

 

About the Author

Stephen W. Smith is a spiritual director and the co-founder (with his wife, Gwen) of The Potter’s Inn ministry. Steve’s books, such as The Lazarus Life, are an integral part of The Potter’s Inn, along with ministry retreats and one-on-one counseling. In 2006, the Smiths founded Potter’s Inn at Aspen Ridge, a retreat center in Divide, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434764729
• ISBN-13: 978-1434764720
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen W. Smith is the Founder of Potter's Inn, a Christian ministry devoted to the work of spiritual formation and the care of the soul. Stephen has pastored and planted churches in the United States and Europe.

He's the author of several books and small group guides.

Potter's Inn does four things: guides retreats; provides soul care for leaders; develops resources on spiritual formation and the care of the soul and operates a small, intimate retreat in Divide, CO, "Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge."

Stephen is married to Gwen and has four sons and two daughters in law. Their dog Laz provides lots of laughs and love.

A long walk and a strong cup of coffee make it all worth it!

"There are only two things that pierce the soul. One is pain. The other is beauty." Simone Weil

The website for Potter's Inn is www.pottersinn.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What you put in to this book will dictate what you take away from it, August 25, 2010

By 

Jennifer (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You (Paperback)

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your schedule, your possessions, or your responsibilities? If so, this book is a must read. Soul Custody will not only encourage you to care for yourself: the physical, psychological, and spiritual you, but it will also show you how. Taking time-tested lessons from hundreds of years before even Jesus walked this earth, Stephen W. Smith will help you to make choices that enable you to take control and live the life "Jesus has wanted for us from the beginning."

Soul Custody is an easy to read book, full of difficult to implement recommendations. It does not promise to reveal the path to happiness on earth or the easy life. The steps toward reclaiming your soul will require you to make difficult choices and to give up some of the things you have become accustomedto, but the end result promises to give so much more than our fast-paced, materialistic, earth-bound lives are giving us.

I would recommend this book as a devotional. Each chapter begins with a verse from the Bible and ends with questions for reflection, lending itself beautifully to a daily devotion time. This is a book that will command time and thought; it will demand change; and the time, thought and change you put into it will directly influence what you take from it.

I received this book from B&B Media in exchange for my honest review. The thoughts printed in this review are entirely my own.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Method to Discover the Real You that God Created, October 13, 2010

By 

Andrea Schultz "Ponderings by Andrea" (Detroit MI area) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You (Paperback)

Lately, the Lord has been directing me, through various means, to heal my soul. The latest tool he has used is `Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You' by Stephen W. Smith.

Here is the synopsis of this book:

Life is about choices. Every day we make choices that affect our lives - choices about what to eat, which job offer is best, which relationships are really worth our time. Whether we realize it or not, every choice is a decision for the life or death of our soul.

As Smith contends, "Caring for your soul is about waking up to live before you die." Soul Custody is an invitation to accept life-giving choices that promise to revive your soul:

Soul Care: Healing the Violence Done to Your Soul

Soul Choices: Turning Your Life Around

Soul Solace: Choosing Stillness

Soul Focus: Choosing a Simplicity of Faith and Life

Soul Serenity: Choosing to Detox from Stress

Soul Sabbath: Choosing to Cease the Insanity

Soul Identity: Choosing to Become the Real You

Soul Vocation: Choosing What to Do in Life

Soul Address: Choosing to Honor the Body-Soul Connection

Soul Companions: Choosing Your Friends

Soul Action: Moving from Choice to Action

This is not a book of easy steps to a happy life. It is a book about the challenging choice to embrace God's dream for you. It's an invitation to start living - to take custody of who you truly are.

Here is the biography of this author:

Stephen W. Smith is a spiritual director and the co-founder (with his wife, Gwen) of The Potter's Inn ministry ([...]). Smith is a frequent speaker and retreat leader who is committed to spiritual growth and transformation of individuals, couples, churches, and organizations. Steve's books, such as The Lazarus Life, are integral parts of The Potter's Inn, as are retreats and one-on-one soul-care sessions offered by the staff. He has served as an adjunct professor of preaching at Tyndale Theological Seminary in Badhovedorp, The Netherlands. In 2006, the Smiths founded Potter's Inn at Aspen Ridge, a retreat center in Divide, Colorado. They have been involved in Christian ministry since 1979.

In Chapter One, Pastor Smith describes the turmoil that we as a society and as individuals are experiencing today:

Uncertainty plagues our lives. Talk shows spin pseudo-optimism, and we momentarily believe that maybe it's not all that bad. Deep down, though, we know it is.

As it is the deep down that concerns me most. We can't sleep. We don't eat right. We're constantly on the go, burning the candle at both ends. Is it any wonder that eight of the top ten drugs prescribed by doctors are mood-altering substances to help us cope with our interior turmoil?

We are sowing havoc and reaping the whirlwind. We are giving up ground that should never be surrendered. We are doing more but living less, making a living but not having a life. Some days it feels like nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic of our lives. (p. 16)

Those are some sobering thoughts. Fortunately, he describes a solution for our distressed state:

Can't we be saved from more than just our sins?

The wonderful news is that this salvation does exist. God never intended for us to suffer the kind of violence that's being inflicted upon us. He never intended for us to inflict more violence upon ourselves through our own poor decision making. God provides means for us to be healed from the damage done. The kinds of choices we must make to find healing and experience transformation fall under the umbrella of soul care.

I like to remember that the word care has its roots in a Latin word that means "cure." As we learn to care for our souls, we will also find a sense of healing from

the violence happening in and around us. Caring and curing go together. (p. 17)

He goes on to explain why he wrote `Soul Custody:'

The purpose of Soul Custody is to help you take back what you might have lost along the way while living your life. Why should we lose our lives in vain attempts to live? For me, caring for my soul has been a journey to reclaim my life - the life I want to live and the life I was intended to live. By choosing to live in life-giving ways, my own life is being healed, cured, restored. Yours can be too! (p. 19)

I think that message needs to be heard by so many people today!

I love how he explains the subtitle of this book:

I wonder if you noticed the subtitle on the cover of this book. I don't want you to miss it: "Choosing to Care for the One and Only You." You will not be given another life. Or, as you've probably heard, this is no dress rehearsal. This is it. You have already begun the journey. You may just be getting started or possibly having to rethink everything due to a crisis, threat, or tragedy. It doesn't matter where you are. You can begin to live a better, different life. (pp. 21-22)

Many people might consider this mindset to be selfish. Pastor Smith makes a compelling - and scriptural - case for why it is not:

I suppose the people who object in this way are just trying to be faithful to the Scriptures. But please hear me on this: Caring for your soul is never a selfish or egotistical act. In fact, caring for your soul is the opposite of being narcissistic. It is really an act of stewardship. We steward our souls by caring for them well. How can we continually give what we do not have? Caring for the soul is an act through which God can replenish your heart, restore your soul, and revive your day so you can meet the challenges of life, work, and relationships. Far from being labeled as sin, soul care is actually a biblical command.

* Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart. For it is the wellspring of life."

* Deuteronomy 4:9 (ESV): "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently."

* 1 Timothy 4:16: "Watch your life and doctrine closely." (p. 23)

I found his explanation of the soul to be quite enlightening:

The real you, which God envisioned when He first had you in mind, is deeply loved and is a reflection of God's image. Your soul is God given, God shaped, God sustained. Yet, as you will find, we play a vital and necessary role in our soul care. The real and the only you - the part of yourself that is alive right now as you are reading this book - is what matters the most. Take care of you. (p. 27)

God has given each of us free will and the ability to choose; we must choose wisely:

Our souls are suffering so much impoverishment because we have wrongly assumed there is an autopilot button we can push to keep going. There's no such button. Our choice is to live or die; to grow or decay; to choose blessing or curse. The soul cannot perform and produce, achieve and acquire without careful choices. It's that simple and that profound. (p. 37)

I focused primarily on the two chapters that deal with the issues I feel that are in most need of care for my soul - Soul Identity and Soul Vocation.

The subtitle of Chapter 7 - Soul Identity - is "Choosing to Become the Real You." I believe that the Lord is wanting me to discover who He really created me to be. That is not necessarily easy in the culture and time in which we live. Pastor Smith opens the chapter this way:

Choosing to become who you are is one of the most important choices we can make in life. When we choose to be ourselves, we honor God's intent with us. We recognize a holy purpose in our formation. Life becomes an unfolding of our souls that is marked by truth and transformation.

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard prayed a wonderful prayer I've adopted for myself: "And now, Lord, with your help, I shall become myself." There is no self-discovery that happens apart from God. Whether it is through His behind-the-scenes work or the unlikely "burning bushes" of the twenty-first century, it seems God is passionate about our knowing what He already knows about us. Becoming our true selves is a journey of transformation as we learn to give up all the false selves we have tried to be and accept ourselves - with glory and ruin inside. (p. 122)

Knowing God is the key to knowing ourselves; we need to also understand how God views us:

We become the beloved every time we rest in who we are apart from what we do, have done, or will do in life. Our beloved-ness does not depend on accomplishments, goals achieved, or quotas met. Our beloved-ness depends upon the fact that God says we are lovable - worthy of His love, attention, care, and provision for us. That's it. (p. 134)

Isn't it interesting how we complicate matters that are, at their core, so simple?

In the chapter entitled `Soul Vocation: Choosing What to Do in Life,' Pastor Smith explains that is important that our vocation be in line with how God wired us:

The chasm between our roles and our souls need to be bridged. Living a life that feels divided between what we do for a living and who we believe we are can leave an emotional cavern the size of the Grand Canyon. This chasm can grow and expand the place in which a soul can hide - perhaps never being known, discovered or celebrated for anything other than fulfilling tasks - our jobs! We lose ourselves in our roles, never really knowing who are really are apart from our jobs. We become lost in the chasm and divided inside. (p. 142)

I was intrigued by his assessment of how we discover our true vocation:

Most of us are not given work epiphanies through which we know in a split second what we should be doing. Each step of the journey informs the... Read more ›

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Self-Care Book, January 16, 2011

By 

BookBargainsandPreviews.com "www.bookbargains... (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You (Paperback)

This book is about self-care. Not just for certain parts of your life, but for your entire self, mind, spirit, and body. It is about taking charge of your life and making it count for God.

The book is easy to ready and its concepts are easy to apply to your life. While the author does not promise you a "rose garden," he does guide you on a path to a fulfilling, joy-filled life. Smith will help you make wise choices that help you to choose the correct life path.

I highly recommend this book for private use and group study alike. While it is "easy to read" it is not an easy read. If you want to get the most out of "Soul Custody" you must immediately begin applying these truths to your life!

*This book was given to me for review by the publisher.