Mark Earley, president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, recently wrote on the value of having a soul friend. He writes from an evangelical Christian perspective, but his ideas are easily applicable in any tradition.

[T]he amazing disappearing act of deep personal friendships is a tell-tale sign of spiritual malnutrition. Think about it. As Mindy Caliguire asks in her new small-group study guide, Spiritual Friendship, “What do you do when you can’t stand the thought of praying, when the words of the Bible seem plastic and false . . . when you have been doing everything ‘right’ and the bottom falls out?” It’s at these times when it is the spiritual friends who throw us a life-preserver.

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