Finding My Soul, Again

As this site launches again, I discover once again I am on a journey to find my soul. No, I didn’t lose it on the first time around. I simply encountered unexpected challenges along my way. Namely my lack of experience with a site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

SEO basically is some of the internal tweaking done for each site page. Those tweaks help rank your site in search results. Simply put, new readers could not find my site. As always, Wikipedia does a good job of going into a lot of detail. So that I can focus on soul searching, you can read the detail on Wikipedia.

Please note that over the past year I have written a number of blog posts. While I’m not discarding them, they do need to be updated. So, for the next few months. my goal is to update and republish each one, about one a week. This post is the first in that stack. I hope you enjoy it.

How Do You Define Soul?

Soul means different things to different people. For music lovers, soul is the rhythm of a song’s living heartbeat. Those living for BBQ perfection, it is the right combination of meat, spice and smoke. For painters, a glance into their hearts through lines and colors on a piece of canvas. For me, it is the life in each of us, which counsels our minds and hearts. A life that lives long after our bodies die in the passing darkness of night. The soul is also the breath of this website, at least that is my hope and prayer.

If our soul is truly eternal, it is safe to assume the Bible mentions it. After all, the Bible is the bestselling book on the afterlife. To save you time checking, yes, the Bible does have something to say. It says it often enough that it is impossible to miss.

The Bible is Full of Soul

In the New Living Translation (NLT), soul turns up sixty-one (61) times. It gets better in the New International Version (NIV) with ninety-one (91) times. In the English Standard Version (ESV), a whopping two hundred and sixty-three (263) times. For those believing King James Version is the only translation worth reading, it appears four hundred and fifty-eight times. Yes, that is 458. I guess the Bible does have something to say about our souls and not just in passing.

In you are wondering if soul simply refers to your heart, the Bible makes it clear it does not. In the KJV Bible, soul and heart are within the same sentence one hundred and eight (108) times.

Don’t let all these translation references and word counts intimidate you. They simply show how various Bible versions can be translated in different ways. Depending on the words used within a translation, even how you interpret the verse may change. This is one of the reasons you need to use a trusted translation of the Bible, like the King James.

Finding My Own Soul

My own walk with God started in my early teens. I always believed in Him. I enjoyed talking with Him those nights that I walked home from my first job. That was back when it was safe to walk home by yourself.

In my early twenties, I found faith. With faith, I started to lose my intimacy with God through various do’s and don’t s. There I was, in the church pew every Sunday, seeking God’s heart. I wanted the joy I had in my teens. Unfortunately, the churches I was attending forgot to invite God into their church. So, I now had faith, but my soul lacked the spark of life in Jesus. Finally in my late thirties I found Jesus and accepted Him as my personal Lord and Savior. My journey to find my soul began once again.

While searching for my soul, I cannot tell you how many mistakes I made. Mistakes I still make without the counsel of others. Mistakes about who God is and mistakes in living my life for Him. Trying to explain to myself how, in spite of having faith, I never felt close to God. Even trying to “hear from God” was a such a struggle. I never seemed to get it right.

Rather than turn this page into a novel, I suggest you turn to the Why Am I Here page. Yes, it is another page, but the page’s conclusion is basically the same as I would write here. Go ahead and read that page. I can wait. These words are not going anywhere.

Back? Good.

That in a nutshell, is why I am here on earth and here searching for my soul. If you feel the need to reach out, please click on over to the How to Connect with Me page.