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

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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.

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 next step. To borrow a theological term, it's called "progressive revelation." Truth grows within us and is validated and confirmed as we move to the next step or place - hopefully to a place that is better lit. Each job informs us that we are getting closer. The next one might just be the fit we've been looking for in our vocational quests. Paying attention to what you learn in each workplace about yourself is as important as fulfilling the certain role that your job demands of you. (p. 151)

Being that I feel that I still don't know where my place is in this world, I was encouraged by this:

It is my opinion - one that isn't substantiated by empirical proof - that convergence does not happen in our twenties when we are starting out in our careers. It does not happen in our thirties, when energy levels are high, motivation is sharp, and drive is steadfast. It may not happen in our forties, when we enter the "midlife crisis."
I see it mostly happening in our fifties and beyond.
...[W]e still have a resolve to do something - something we sense we were made to do. Passion has been tested in the past, but now it is the time for the release of mature passion, not just youthful energy and vigor. Bridled energy is surer, and strength is not diminished by effort. (p. 154)

The last chapter of the book is entitled `Soul Action: Moving from Choice to Action.' It is important that we are in motion:

Facing the truth about how you are doing is facing the truth about your soul. Don't deny that you need to do this. Don't ignore the warning signals that your soul gives you, such as stress, depression, lack of joy, relational strife, spiritual dryness, anxiety levels, preoccupation with daydreams and fantasies, time spent using technology, and more.
Neither should you ignore the positive aspects of your own fulfillment, including inner peace, contentment with life, spiritual aliveness, and exuberance about life. Instead, let these indicators, positive or negative, help you and others discern what state your soul is really in.
Admitting that we are "in trouble" or experiencing any symptoms in the above paragraph helps us to bring us to our knees. That is a great starting place. Kneel before God and tell Him about the parts of your life - which silos - are just out of control. Believe that God can help you. Turn your will over to God and begin to take responsibility for a life that will be more expansive, more soulful, and much more reflective. Your soul will do much more that survive, you'll thrive. (p. 202)

Pastor Smith concludes his book this way:

We don't have to lose our souls. We can value our souls enough to take custody of them and care for what matters most in life. We flourish when we tend to the life within us and care for it. We flourish and thrive when we give the soul what the soul requires to live.
My prayer is that you will begin to flourish most beautifully before the face of God.
Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live (Deut. 30:19 NLT) (p. 216)

Each chapter ends with `Questions for Reflection.' These questions can be answered individually or in a group setting. I encourage everyone who has a soul - that includes all of us! - to read and work through this book. It is vital that we be as healthy in our soul as we are healthy in our body (probably even more so). So many people focus on the care of their body, and neglect the part of self that is eternal - the soul.

I had never really considered some of the concepts in this book. It makes me see life in a completely different way in so many different areas - and they are all positive for my soul. For that, I thank Pastor Smith and his wife, Gwen, for the work they have done to bring these ideas to the rest of us.

This book was published by David C. Cook and provided by The B&B Media Group for review purposes.

Reviewed by Andrea Schultz - Ponderings by Andrea - [...]

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.

What, exactly, is a "soul." Airline pilots and ship's captains seem to know; they can tell you at any time how many "souls" are entrusted to their care. For the rest of us, the soul is a bit difficult to pin down. That's where Soul Custody begins.

Steven Smith defines the soul as, "the real you, the whole shebang--your heart, mind, emotions, desires and longings..." The real, entire person created in God's image and deeply loved by God. Our souls are created b y God, shaped and sustained and well-loved by God. Living in a world that is owned by sin, however, has done violence to our souls.

Smith's premise is that God has given custody of our souls to us. According to the Free Dictionary, the definition of "custody" is "The care, possession, and control of a thing or person." We each have the charge and responsibility to care for, possess (own) and control our own souls. If we accept this charge, we grow into the fully human persons God created us to be. If we do not accept the charge, we risk losing our souls, our very selves.

As Cofounder and Spiritual Director at The Potter's Inn, Steven Smith and his wife, Gwen, provide resources, spiritual direction and ministry to Christian believers who are seeking a closer relationship with God and a transformational spirituality. Smith's conclusions arise from years of listening to stories and helping people heal and grow. He has seen the deadly toll American culture takes on souls. He has heard of the violence done to souls, the weariness, the pain and disconnect and hopelessness that many
Christians endure. In this book, Soul Care, Smith gives us back our hope and shows us how to find peace and healing.

It all begins by taking responsibility. To discover and nurture my own soul, I must take "custody" of it; I must care for my true self, own myself and control myself. Whenever I give the responsibility for my soul away, I risk losing it. As Smith says, "We forfeit our souls every single time we choose to drain ourselves and not replenish ourselves, run on empty rather than stopping and intentionally doing the things that will bring us life; burnout rather than live meaningful, significant, and impactful lives that are enjoyable and life giving to others."

In each of the eleven chapters of Soul Care, Smith discusses specific ways to care for our souls:
* Soul Care: Healing the Violence Don 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 Actions: Moving from Choice to Action
As you can see, these are big subjects. Taking care for our souls is not a simple or easy task. And Smith doesn't give us an easy 1-2-3 outline to follow that will make life better. Rather, he talks about lifestyle changes that are hard and take time--but are transformational.

Part of Soul Care is entering into a slower, more natural rhythm in life. Smith says, "Living with a sustainable rhythm is one of the most important aspects to coping with stress and caring for our souls." This natural rhythm is the heartbeat of the book. Smith's sentences are written with a natural anapestic or iambic rhythm, and the language is smooth and simple. There is no hurry, no dissonance, no stress. Just a natural, organic, calming rhythm that leads forward; a rhythm that calls each of us to care for--to take custody of-- our own souls.

As stated, "This not a book of easy steps to a happy life." Stephen W. Smith, in Soul Custody, meddles (in a good way) in your life as a believer to awaken you to the direction of your life, to bring you to the place God has intended, out of the fast-paced, `accomplishment' world. He has broken it down into eight sections to help you understand the different concepts he is addressing. It's clear and concise information, with questions to jolt you awake from the rat-race of your fast-paced world, to slow you down and listen to that "still, small voice of the Holy Spirit."

The encouraging word is that "...for it is God that works in you to will and do of His good pleasure," (Philippians 2:13), but we must be willing to slow down, listen, and obey.

I love his closing Scripture, "Today, I have give you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" (Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT)

Soul Custody offers eleven life-giving choices that everyone can make to free their souls from the world's demand and release them to live meaningful and satisfying lives:

1. Soul Care: Healing the Violence Done to Your Soul
2. Soul Choices: Turning your Life Around
3. Soul Solace: Choosing Stillness
4. Soul Focus: Choosing a Simplicity of Faith and Life
5. Soul Serenity: Choosing to Detox from Stress
6. Soul Sabbath: Choosing to Cease the Insanity
7. Soul Identity: Choosing to Become the Real You (In Christ)
8. Soul Vocation: Choosing What to Do in Life
9. Soul Address: Choosing to Honor the Body-Soul Connection
10. Soul Companions: Choosing Your Friends
11. Soul Action: Moving from Choice to Action

This would be a great book for Bible studies, Sunday Schools, and personal use, but preferably with an accountability partner. Highly recommend!

This book was provided by Audra of The B & B Media Group, Inc., in exchange for my honest review.

I received Soul Care: Choosing To Care For The One And Only You by Stephen W. Smith from Audra at B&B Media Group in exchange for my honest review.

Mr. Smith begins Soul Care by describing a kind of violence that has been unleashed upon our souls and states how for many of us "life is not working as we think it should". And the culprit according to Mr. Smith is busyness:

"Every single person who feels more dead than alive, more tired tan energized, more burned-out than motivated, more unfulfilled than thriving is a soul in need - a soul who needs to be cared for. The Chinese have two characters for the English word busyness, which they define as 'heart annihilation'. We're killing ourselves with all of our busy, busy, busy."

Mr. Smith spends the rest of the book helping the reader to understand how to "take back what you might have lost along the way while living your life". He does this by laying out the concept of soul custody which he describes as "taking back what we've almost lost in order to gain what we should never want to lose". He says this is our "sacred privilege".

Mr. Smith quotes Eugene Peterson in the first chapter and the quote is so good I have to share it here:

"Man people think that what's written in the Bible has mostly to do with getting people into heaven - getting right with God and saving their eternal souls. It does have to do with that, of course, but not mostly. It is equally concerned with living on this earth - living well and living in a robust sanity."

I don't know about you, but I'd love to discover this robust sanity!

To be honest, the subtitle to this book, Choosing To Care For The One And Only You, is what peaked my interest in reading this book. My initial thoughts were, "On no. Here is another 'Christian' book that's going to be more man-centered than God-centered; another book that will tell me if I just believe in myself, I can do anything!"

I was very wrong.

Mr. Smith does a very good job of pointing the reader to God's word and explaining that taking custody of your soul is an act of stewardship. This life is not all about us, but how can we serve others and care for them following the example of Jesus by continually trying to give what we do not have? Mr. Smith says:

"You can't help anyone else if you are dying for lack of oxygen. It is not selfish for you to breathe first, then help the others in need."

Here are the chapter titles:

* 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

There are questions at the end of each chapter where Smith has the reader go to God's word and explore the concepts he shared in the chapter as they line up with scripture, making the book excellent for use with a small group study.

I would like to extend a heartfelt "Thank you" to Stephen Smith and his publisher for sending me a copy of "Soul Custody" to review for them. I am truly grateful for this generosity. I really appreciate the time, effort and expense it takes to make a reviewer copy available to me.

In the non-fiction work, "Soul Custody: Choosing To Care For The One And Only You", Stephen W. Smith has penned 11 chapters crafted to address specific life issues that affect the whole person in all aspects of living, but especially in the area of spirituality. Each chapter begins with a scripture verse and a quote to encourage and provoke thought. The chapters end with questions for reflection or discussion. The chapters are short and speak to our hearts' desire - to be close to God. This is a terrific book that promotes overall fitness of body, soul, mind and spirit.