One man puts his busy life on hold to find healing for the soul and space for God

Life never seems to slow down. Work consumes 40 hours or more of each week. Add to that the additional responsibilities at home and the children’s nonstop extracurricular activities. Mix in church involvement and volunteer service, and one has an unbelievably difficult burden to carry. Sometimes the busy pace and the heavy load leave Christians feeling empty and losing their passion for life. From sheer tiredness, perhaps, they settle for “good enough” rather than for God’s best.

Author and speaker Jerome Daley knew that his quality of life was deteriorating due to the demands of his responsibilities as worship leader, father and husband. He also realized that he needed a time of spiritual refreshment and restoration. While on a yearlong sabbatical with his family to restructure his life, he found a renewed relationship with God and discovered the personal need for “soul space.”

In Soul Space (Integrity, Jan. 2003), Daley evokes a new way of thinking about the spiritual life and the intimate relationship for which our soul yearns – the need for a special area cleared from all of life’s clutter where we can be alone with God. All of the activities that we invite into our lives may eventually create a soul sickness, where the voice of the Holy Spirit can no longer be heard. It is critical to recognize, as Daley did during his own spiritual quest, that what one DOES for God really isn’t as important as who one IS for God.