The Four Loves (Part Three): are you a Soul type?

contemplation in action

To love God with all of one’s soul means we’ll experience our love for God most acutely through times of reflection, meditation, solitude and contemplation. At their best, Soul types are deep, grounded, centred, reflective and wise. At their worst, they can become aloof, disconnected and relationally distant. In general, Soul types find it much easier to live within the rhythms of the moment, and are better than other types at not worrying about the past or the future. They are at home in the moment and experience God through this posture.

The Scripture that best expresses the natural state of the Soul type is Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” For Soul types the past is formative and the future is possibility, but the present is the arena of transformation. Therefore, Soul types have a much easier time than the other types recognizing God’s power and presence in the everyday moments that make up their lives. Enjoying a cup of tea, driving to work, reading a book, conversations with a friend, etc., are all activities that Soul types connect with God easily through.

Soul types are often more interested in loving God through hearing God and spending silent, reflective time in His presence. This lends itself to an attraction to contemplative practices ranging from journaling to silence retreats. While these practices are much more difficult for the other three types, the Soul type finds them to be stimulating and refreshing.

An interesting sidebar regarding the Soul type is that they often go unnoticed and unappreciated within many churches. This is because they often don’t show up on the leadership’s radar as “movers and shakers” and tend to make few demands on the community. They are often the antithesis of the classic Type A personality, so they are drawn to churches that give them space to live out their quiet (but not simple) faith in ways that allow them a certain level of anonymity. This means that many Soul types eventually leave energetic evangelical churches because these communities tend to emphasize a Christian spirituality that is grounded in one of the other three types.

Soul types must grow beyond their root or the desire to remove themselves from the rhythms of regular life may become a problem. The Soul type longs to immerse themselves in prayer and reflection. This immersion, however, can become a rationalization that promotes a privatized spirituality that moves them away from realities that should be faced. The core temptation for the Soul type is to extract themselves from the world so that they can pursue a deeper, “unpolluted” experience of God. But that movement is anti-Christ. We do not find God by detaching from His creation. We experience the richness of God as we embrace the struggles and challenges that are part of living in God’s good world.

Christians famously speak of aiming to be in the world, but not of the world, but if the Soul type doesn’t learn to love God with their heart, mind and strength as well, they may find themselves detached from the world and unable to impact it as a disciple.