As Your Soul Prospers

                 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3 John 2 NSAB1995)

                 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. (3 John 2 NIV)

                Same verse, two versions. Normally, I share NIV, but I learned this verse with the word prosper in it, and it seems to be missing something without it. I have to begin by saying that I’ve been experiencing this verse for the last seven to ten years. I will admit that I have prospered, at least according to the judgment of some, but I didn’t feel prosperous. It always felt as if I were under someone’s heel or thumb. I won’t bother with the details, but as I began writing, and later, as I began trying to gain competence in life in general: gardening, doing minor carpentry, crafting, preserving foods, etc., I have begun to feel a little more prosperous, a little more free.

                But as I read this verse this morning, what came to mind was the question of whether anyone – and especially God – would really want me to prosper and be in good health, or for my soul to prosper. Oh, I know, God and others are supposed to want me to prosper, but God’s definition of “prosper” and yours, and mine, are probably not the same. God’s idea of prospering has to do with His involvement in your life more than with our bank balances (since $ often becomes a god that separates us from Him). Over the past several years, for me, prospering has meant doing things I love instead of being crushed by a job I’ve hated, learning, and being able to help others. Having an income, while nice, hasn’t been the highest priority. Your idea of prosperity is whatever your idea is. For some, it’s dollars available to spend.

                But the caveat in this verse is as your soul prospers. That begins with our relationship with God. It includes our relationships with others, ourselves, possessions, responsibilities, desires, hopes, dreams, and even the world. And the problem is that as our soul properly prospers in any of these, the others tend to follow along. And as our soul is in a wrong relationship with any of them, the others tend to follow along.