How's Your Soul? (Judah Smith)

Starting off I will say that I might be a little bias, as the author, Judah Smith is my pastor. That aside I still feel like I can recognize a life enriching book. Accurately titled, this book makes you stop and reevaluate just about every aspect of your life. Recently I’ve started to pay more attention to the question, “how are you?” It’s become a sort of cliché and as much as that bothered me, I found myself passing my friends around campus muttering a quick “hey, how’re you?” and rushing on by. So I made it a point to genuinely answer when others asked me and to only ask if I was going to wholeheartedly listen. This resulted in suddenly finding myself venting to just about anyone who greeted me with “how are you?” or a “how’s it going?” I’d be spilling my guts to a barista who was probably just trying to be polite. Anyway, this is all relevant because I started this book around the same time I began doing this. HYS takes doing this, one step further. It’s one thing to ask how someone’s current mood is or how their day is going, but to ask how their soul is doing, takes being vulnerable to a whole new level. I don’t believe in coincidences so the way this book lined up with my mentality made me appreciate it so much more.

How do I know if I’m taking care of my soul? What even is my soul? What does ‘how’s your soul’ mean? Smith addresses each of these questions and goes way beyond that. To me, this book is about the importance of making sure you’re emotionally okay, and saving love for yourself and how that will reflect in the way that you love others. However, I also believe this is one of those books where you take away what you need the most and while I hate the way “self-help” books tend to have a negative connotation tied to them, I definitely think people would be much happier and pleasant if they read at least one at some point in their lives. Ultimately, HYS is about how to make sure you’re taking care of yourself inwardly and then outwardly. Whether you identify as Christian, have any type of relationship with God or not, this is a book everyone can walk away from feeling comforted in love. And yes I do have a copy, it’s yours if you just ask!