He Restores My Soul

Our guest speaker/teacher out first week of Project: Camp spoke on a number of topics over the course of the week including one day on personal time with God. He said a number of things that made me think or nod my head in agreement. Things like, “We spend too much time trying to understand God instead of enjoying and getting to know Him.” Or, something I’ve heard him say a few times, “God is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be entered in to.”

We talked about the fact that spending time with God, like building any other relationship, isn’t to be based on a formula but our teacher was kind enough to give us a bit of an outline to start from as we explored the 23rd Psalm on our own.

I started by reading this passage familiar to many,
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in want
He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me…

After reading the whole thing through a couple of times one key phrase stuck out to me- “He restores my soul.” He restores my soul.

Now, I don’t know much which is to say I know very little about restoring artwork but I began thinking about the process of restoring an artwork and paraphrased the statement. He makes my soul beautiful again.

God alone restores my soul- he’s the only one who can (HE). He makes it beautiful again, bringing it back to its original beauty, intention, design, etc (RESTORES). God desires not just to bring restoration to the world and people around me but to me too (MY). Finally, I consider my soul- it is central or at least a crucial, key part of my being (my soul, center of my beauty and passion) (SOUL).

He restores my soul; he makes my soul beautiful again.