When Our Souls Fall Behind Our Bodies
Jake Owensby recently told the story of a European Adventurer at the height of Western colonialism in Africa who set out to explore uncharted regions in the heart of that continent. He hired local tribesmen as porters to carry his supplies.
For days, they walked miles of challenging terrain at a relentless pace. The European explorer was obsessed with meeting his goal within the ambitious timetable he had set for the adventure.
One morning, his porters refused to take another step. There was no drama, no revolt. They simply sat down.
The explorer tried everything to get them moving again. Nothing worked. He finally asked, “Why aren’t you moving?”
One of the porters explained, “Our souls have fallen behind our bodies, so we must wait for them to catch up.”
Our souls have fallen behind our bodies so we must wait for them to catch up.1
This so resonates with me. When our souls have fallen behind our bodies, this isn’t living. It’s merely existing.
But Jesus constantly calls us to a different way, a different pattern of life, that nourishes and cares for the soul even as our bodies grow weary.
The porters were not complaining about carrying heavy burdens. Instead, their ordinary lives had drummed into them a wisdom about carrying burdens that we have yet to learn.
In this life, we all carry burdens. Sometimes heavy, sometimes lighter. To be alive is to bear some burden.
To put that another way, a carefree life is no life at all. We are made in God’s image, designed to care for each other. Caring, being in relationship, is what makes life meaningful.
But in Western culture, we yearn for fulfillment and a life without stress, strain, toil, or anxiety—free of burdens.
We imagine we’ll get there once we reach our career goals, achieve notoriety, become powerful, or accumulate enough wealth.
In the meantime, our energy and attention focus on whatever will get us to that carefree point.
Along the way, we leave our souls behind. We may make immense technological progress, become well-known, and accumulate considerable wealth./ Yet our hearts feel troubled, we develop few friendships, and often our family relationships suffer. We experience anxiety, exhaustion, and alienation.
In this computer age, we make the Evil One’s job of evil a breeze. Hurry, pathological busyness, distraction, smartphone addiction, and the constant stream of alerts and interruptions—all of these cut us off from the Spirit, Christ, God within us. “When the Evil around us cannot make us bad, the Devil makes us busy.” (John Mark Comer, Live No Lies)
Our spiritual challenge is to practice sustained awareness or attention, living intentionally in the present moment. Christians have long understood that this sustained habit of awareness of God’s presence within and around us does not happen by accident. It requires attentiveness and a pattern.. This is what Christian tradition calls a rule of life.
A rule is a spiritual rhythm for living intentionally in the present moment, experiencing God in the present moment. The present moment is where God meets us. Here we cultivate ongoing awareness of God, beauty, the earth, and truth in everyday life rather than rushing through each day, each moment on autopilot. We notice what is happening within and around us. The cadence of the daily rhythm is marked by time with Scripture, reflection, prayer, work, sleep, recreation, and regular worship with a community.
St. Benedict and followers understood that our continuous practice of awareness of the present moment enables us to stay connected to God, who is always present. 2
The question is not whether we will carry burdens in this life. The question is which pattern we will follow to carry life’s burdens.
It is never too late to Stop, Be Aware, and get back on the path that lets our souls catch up with our bodies.
1Jake Owensby, “Listening is More Than Existing,” The Woodlands, May 15, 2026
2 Jake Owensby, “Pentecost Learning the Habit of Attention,” The Woodlands, May 22, 2026
Joanna. joannaseibert.com