A beautiful Salvation Army lassie spoke to a busy businessman: "How is it with your soul?" she asked. As the man was about to snap back with a hostile reply, he suddenly paused, hesitated, then quietly said, "My dear young lady, I'm really not sure I remembered I had a soul."

Most of us need to be reminded every now and then. And we are, surely we are, in church on Sunday morning. Here we are brought up against a fundamental and essential truth: our life is not all dollars and cents; it isn't all hours and schedules, dates and deadlines; it isn't all sleeping and eating or work and play - it is partly soul, mostly perhaps.

As all of life's surface components require some attention in our living day by day, so does the soul of life need some attention too. In worship it is brought to our remembrance that this is so. In worship we go beyond surface things which demand our attention so constantly and so persistently, and we get in touch with ourselves at the deeper levels of what we are - we get in touch with our souls.

May this be for you today a richly rewarding encounter, and because of it, may your soul and you be on better terms and in better touch with one another!