Everyone eventually has a soul-baring event, moment, situation, crisis, need or end. There inevitably occurs a space in life, where someone is hurt and may die, is terminal, has Alzheimer's, cancer, lost a job, broken a law, facing consequences of bad decisions, financial disaster, a bad car accident, or maybe you are facing your own mortality. Some of us even PRACTICE soul-baring because we believe it to be good for the soul! Hopefully you have people in your life with which you can bare your soul.
I did this today … just talked to a missionary who works for another organization about the double loss of a parent with Alzheimer's, about betrayal in my parent organization, about my brother who is destroying himself with alcohol, about my wife who is in constant pain, about the way some of my clients are being trashed by their mission, about the lost people surrounding me, about my hopes and wishes for my children and grandchildren.
Granted, not all of this soul-baring is equal, but many of them are excruciatingly painfully emotional, and the rest can cause quite a bit of stress, angst and turmoil. These are matters of the soul. Left inside they soon start to smell like the meat in my in-laws deep freezer after the compressor burned out and it sat in there rotting for weeks. It is a smell you can never get out of the freezer! You have to throw away the freezer too! Don't let matters get that old and moldy, much less to the point of rotting. Let it out, bare your heart your soul …to someone. Let the refreshing cleansing begin.
And occasionally all of us should wear the other suit as well. We need to be the one that listens to others bare their souls. It can be very therapeutic and helpful for all involved. Most often my internal response is simply thankfulness, that I only have what I have to bear, and not what this poor soul who is sobbing has to bear. It is finally great practice at listening, which not only helps the one baring their soul to you, but helps you appreciate it when someone else does it for you. Everyone eventually gets here. Be ready.
