Soul

  Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

“We don't have a soul. We are a soul. We have a body." (George MacDonald, 1892 – erroneously attributed to C.S. Lewis)

          As far as I can tell, today’s verses are the first two occurrences of the word that is translated “soul” in the Bible. Modern translations are now translating the term as “living being” in the Genesis verse, but they give it a footnote saying, “Lit. soul.”

          One of my “undercurrent” issues of the moment is improving my health. I just got my cholesterol and blood pressure checked. Both are higher than I want, and my weight? Let’s not go there. I feel weak, and too often too tired. Some of these things, I know how to handle.

          But how does one ascertain the health of one’s mind, emotions, spirit, soul, relationships, attitude, etc.? That question is the reason I checked my shelves and a local library for a book, and found it in my Kindle Reader. It’s called Soul-Keeping, but John Ortberg, and it draws heavily on the teachings of his mentor, Professor Dallas Willard. Of course, I’ve liked Professor W. for years. He’s my Prof. X.

          I have gone through Soul Keeping at least twice before. This time, I want to go slowly, but yesterday, I ploughed through most of the preliminary stuff. The first important key is to understand what a soul is, and what it does. The people who wrote the Old Testament text didn’t seem to think that one needed to define “soul” but in a time in which people have disconnected with the wisdom of the past, we need some help.

          George MacDonald’s quote above, and the Professor Willard’s diagram below help me a great deal with understanding the soul.

 

     The soul is made up of the will, the mind (thoughts and feelings, but I would add attitudes), and the body. We are souls. Souls are made up of our wills, our minds (thoughts, emotions, etc.), and our bodies. Professor Willard compares the soul to the CEO who directs and integrates the activities of the corporation (us.)

          One of the good things about this that what I do to make my body healthier will inevitably make my soul healthier (unless I’m wrong about something making my body healthier.) Everything I do to make my thoughts, feelings, and attitudes healthier will improve my soul’s health. Every bad habit I break and every good habit I build will make my soul healthier.

          I’m reading another book that I didn’t know I was reading. It’s Trusting God When You’re Struggling: Overcoming The Obstacles To Faith by C.E. White. When I say that I didn’t know I was reading it, of course, I know I’m reading the book. The first half discusses the aforementioned obstacles, including: finding His promise, expectations, fear, self-sufficiency, doubt, pleasure, abandonment, insufficiency, failure; suffering, persecution, and other generally hard things; distraction, laziness, hurry, prosperity, worry, dreams, conformity, regret, and the cares of this world. I recommend that you get the book and read about these things. But that is what I thought the book was going to be. In fact, it’s just the first half. After that, she has a section called “Building Spiritual Health.”

      I need to make a checklist of those obstacles, so that when I’m feeling obstructed, I have a list to help me figure out what the problem is. I feel a little like the popular detective who puts pictures on a white board and draws line and takes notes – and adds white boards as one gets full. It’s research mode, but I’m hoping to make it the subject of my blog for a while – trying to be practical, trying to give resources, because we need to get healthy.