Getting our soul-work down to earth

Perhaps all this talk about the soul is getting too ethereal for you. Talking to one’s soul? Really? But don’t give up. The Psalms offer another (perhaps simpler) doorway through which we can encounter our soul.

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Choose an image from the Psalms below that best describes your soul and the things it wants to cry out. If you can’t decide, choose the one your best friend or spouse would choose for you.
-A panting deer who has been running in search of water for a long time (see 42:1)
-A small creature crouching in the protective shadow of a huge creature (God’s wings) (see 57:1)
-A weary desert traveler (see 63:1) A desert valley with huge dry cracks opening up (see 143:6)
-An ailing patient who stretches out his hands for help yet refuses to be comforted when comfort is offered (see 77:2)
-Someone who has narrowly escaped death (see 116:8)
-A tired mountain climber who has found a solid foothold (see 94:18-19)
-A guard on duty all night long (see 130:6)
-A wild and crazy musician who even talks to her instruments (see 108:1) A gourmet diner (see 63:5)
-A weaned child at his mother’s breast—content and not even looking for food (see 131:2) 

Consider the image you’ve chosen. What is the cry of your soul based on that image? What is needed to help your soul rest in God? Think also of someone close to you, perhaps someone you minister to and hope to be a blessing to. Which image fits that person? What is the cry of his or her heart? How might you reach out to that person?

 

Soul partnership with God

THE CRIES OF THE SOUL - In spiritual transformation, it is necessary to take the soul seriously and deal with it regularly and intelligently, to be mindful of it. Yet you hear little about the soul in Christian groups, and you see few people seriously concerned about the state of their own soul. 

Some people talk about saving the soul, but once the soul is “safe,” it is usually treated as needing no further attention. Ignoring the soul is one reason Christian churches have become fertile sources of recruits for cults and other religious and political groups. 

We may dimly discern our own soul’s condition and that of others, but we rarely can articulate those conditions and comprehend them at a level required for reflection and discussion. This is not compatible with the serious undertaking of spiritual formation. 

We as individuals must “own” our souls and take responsibility before God for them, turning to our pastors and teachers for the necessary help. Once we clearly acknowledge the soul, we can learn to hear its cries. Jesus heard its cries from the wearied humanity he saw around him. The multitudes around him tore his heart, for they were “distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). He invited such people to come and become his students (“learn of me,” Matthew 11:29, KJV) by yoking themselves to him—that is, letting him show them how he would pull their load. He is not above this, as earthly “great ones” are, for he is “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29, KJV). His own greatness of soul made meekness and lowliness the natural way for him to be (see Philippians 2:3-11). 

Being in his yoke is not a matter of taking on additional labor to crush us all the more, but a matter of learning how to use his strength and ours together to bear our load and his. We will find his yoke an easy one and his burden a light one because, in learning from him, we have found rest for our soul. Rest for our soul is rest in God. Our soul is at peace only when it is with God, as a child with its mother.

 

Taking time to be quiet & talk to and about our soul

John Wesley was famous for asking the question, “How is it with your soul?” Such a question requires reflection because the soul resides in the depths of our being. That reflection requires not so much concentration but a quieting of self so that the soul’s condition can be discerned. 

When speaking of our soul, we can borrow ideas and language from the Psalms, which show us how to talk about and to our soul. Look at the various states of the psalmists’ soul: the soul is in anguish (see 6:3), is consumed with longing for God’s laws (see 119:20), and is weary with sorrow (see 119:28). Notice the things the soul does: pants for God (see 42:1), thirsts for God (see 42:2; 63:1), finds rest in God (see 62:1), clings to God (see 63:8), longs and yearns for the courts of God (see 84:2), and waits for God (see 130:5). 

The psalmist even talks to his or her soul, asking questions: 

-Why, my soul, are you downcast?         
-Why so disturbed within me? (42:5, NIV)
Then the psalmist tells the soul what to do:         
-Put your hope in God,                 
-for I will yet praise him,                 
-my Savior and my God. (42:5, NIV)         
-Awake, my soul! (57:8, NIV)         
-Yes, my soul, find rest in God. (62:5, NIV)         
-Praise the LORD, my soul;         
-all my inmost being. (103:1, NIV)

Perhaps most touching, the psalmist asks God to say to his or her soul: “I am your salvation” (35:3, NIV).

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Ponder how it is with your soul, using questions such as these:
-What state is your soul in (anguish, longing for God’s justice, at rest)?
-What does your soul repeatedly do (pant, thirst for God, wait for God, rail against God)?
-What question would you like to ask your soul? (Why are you downcast? Why are you distracted?)
-What would you like to say to your soul? (Hope in God. Find rest.)
-What would you like God to say to your soul? (I am your hope. I hear you. I come alongside you.)

 

Inner conflict: You know what you should do, but you don’t feel like doing it.

Perhaps you know what it’s like to have thoughts, feelings, social relations, bodily behaviors, and choices that conflict with each other. You know what you should do, but you don’t feel like doing it. 

You want to say gracious, kind things, but your tongue takes over with sarcasm. Before you leave home, you decide to treat a certain relative with grace, but once you get to the family gathering and that person makes a catty remark about you, you stay exiled in another room for the rest of the day. 

What would it take to be like a fruit-bearing, unwitherable tree planted by streams of water? What is needed for you to prosper naturally? 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Ponder the scriptural images in these two passages: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh [natural capabilities] and whose heart turns away from the LORD. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” (Jeremiah 17:5-6, NIV) 

Why does depending on natural capabilities turn one’s heart from God? Why would such a person not see prosperity when it’s standing right in front of him? What are the parched places in your life? How are you like this bush? “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.      They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (verses 7-8, NIV) 

What does this person not fear? How would you have to arrange your life differently in order to be a person whose roots thrust out toward the stream that is God? What do these verses lead you to pray?

 

With a well-kept heart, the soul is properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality

INTEGRATING THE DIMENSIONS OF THE SELF - At any moment it is your soul that is running your life. Not thoughts, intentions, or feelings, but your soul. The soul is that aspect that integrates the dimensions of the self and how they interact with each other. The soul lies almost totally beyond conscious awareness. 

In the person with a well-kept heart, the soul is properly ordered under God and in harmony with reality. The outcome is a person who is capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are good and right, such as the person in Psalm 1. He does not determine his course of action by what those without God say—even their latest brilliant ideas. 

Living within only human “wisdom” makes it “necessary” to do what is wrong and to prepare explanations of why one who does wrong things is still a good person and why those who do otherwise are fools. This person is an expert scorner, putting others in their place with appropriate doses of contempt, which is an essential element of scorn (see verse 1). 

In contrast, the Psalm 1 person delights in the law that God has given. He dwells upon it, turning it over and over in his mind and speaking it to himself. It is where his whole being is oriented. For many, this ideal arrangement of life under God remains an impossible dream, for their soul is running amuck and their life is in chaos. Enslaved to their desires or their bodily habits, or blinded by false ideas, their soul cannot find its way into a life of consistent truth and harmonious pursuit of what is good. 

The individual soul’s formation is seen in how thoughts, feelings, social relations, bodily behaviors, and choices unfold, and especially how they interact with each other. Many times an individual is in deep self-conflict. However, one must not underestimate the powers of recovery of the soul under grace. God is over all. The soul manifests amazing capacities for recovery when it finds its home in God and receives his grace.

 

What should the Body of Christ look like?

After describing how the body of Christ works together in grace and power (see Romans 12:3-8), Paul described Christ’s body behaving this way (verses 9-21):
-Letting love be completely real.
-Abhorring what is evil.
-Clinging to what is good.
-Being devoted to one another in family-like love.
-Outdoing one another in giving honor.
-Serving the Lord with an ardent spirit and in all diligence.
-Rejoicing in hope.
-Being patient in troubles.
-Being devoted constantly to prayer.
-Contributing to the needs of the saints.
-Pursuing (running after) hospitality.
-Blessing persecutors and not cursing them.
-Being joyful with those who are rejoicing and being sorrowful with those in sorrow.
-Living in harmony with each other.
-Not being haughty, but fitting right in with the lowly, in human terms.
-Not seeing oneself as wise. Never repaying evil for evil.
-Having due regard for what everyone takes to be right.
-Being at peace with everyone, so far as it depends on you.
-Never taking revenge, but leaving that to whatever God may decide.
-Providing for needy enemies.
-Not being overwhelmed by evil, but overwhelming evil with good. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Imagine yourself as part of a group of disciples of Jesus who made this list their shared intention and actually lived it out. Your group would operate as a small group or even as a church and do the normal things that groups do, but effort and discussion would be focused on doing those things as described above. 

Perhaps every group meeting would begin by savoring God’s grace and power and envisioning life together such as this. All planning would flow from these goals. 

What would marriages in such a group be like? How would that congregation interact with its community? How would disagreements be solved? What would you like most about such a group? What aspect of love (listed above) would you cherish most in that group? How would you be changed by experiencing a group such as this? Seeing yourself as whole? Abandoning defensiveness? Extending yourself in blessing to others? To what group is God calling you to be such a group member today?

 

Acceptance of us into His life beyond the worst that could be done to Him or to us

STEPS TOWARD GENUINE LOVE - The first element in the spiritual formation of our social dimension is for individuals to come to see themselves whole, as God himself sees them—to regard themselves as blessed no matter what has happened. 

This vision of wholeness in God draws the poisons from our relationships with others and enables us to go forward with sincere forgiveness and blessing toward them. Only in this way can we stand free from the wounds of the past and from those who have assaulted or forsaken us. 

The second element is abandonment of all defensiveness. This includes a willingness to be known in our most intimate relationships for who we really are. It includes abandonment of practices of self-justification, evasiveness, and deceit, as well as manipulation. We do not hide, and we do not follow strategies for “looking good.” 

As pretense vanishes from our lives, the third element in this transformation of the self comes forward: love among Christians that is “genuine” (Romans 12:9, NRSV). Love characterizes local gatherings of disciples (churches) so that each person carries out her particular work in the group life with a grace and power that is not from herself but from God (see Romans 12:3-8). 

The fourth element is to extend ourselves in blessing and redemption to all whose lives we touch. Without the burden of defending ourselves, we can act from the resources of our new life from above and devote our lives to the service of others. Such formation in Christ requires that we increasingly be happily reconciled to living by the direct upholding of the hand of God. Certainly, to achieve this in our social dimension we must have heard and accepted the gospel of grace: of Jesus’ defenseless death on the cross on our behalf and of his acceptance of us into his life beyond the worst that could be done to him or to us. We must stand safe and solid in his kingdom.

 

Do we give our best or very worst to those we love most?

Perhaps families are the most frequent scene of attack because there the true self emerges. And perhaps we don’t check ourselves because we know we can get away with it there. Instead of giving our best to those we deeply love, we may give them our worst. 

Our hope for change comes through participating in a life from above, which connects us to that invisible spiritual realm and its powers (see John 3:8). We really do have “everything we need for a godly life.” How? “Through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3, NIV). Experiment with such knowledge of him. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Picture Jesus teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Imagine a bent-over woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. As so often happened, his overwhelming compassion beamed toward her. He called her up front and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity” (Luke 13:12, NIV). 

Can you see Jesus gently putting his hands on this dear woman so that in an instant she stretched herself out tall and statuesque, shouting out praise to God? Into this moment of joy and wonder entered an indignant synagogue leader to say that Jesus picked the wrong day to heal her. This was not a Lord’s Day sort of thing to do. 

Set aside what really happened next and instead imagine Jesus attacking this leader in the clever way we know he could have—lightning bolts coming out of the clouds, melting the man (recall the wicked witch at the end of The Wizard of Oz), or simply ignoring him but later using his influence to make sure he never ate lunch in that town again. In reality, Jesus did speak up, indicting such behavior as hypocrisy and asserting that this dear woman was more important than the man’s livestock, which he would have gladly rescued had it been imperiled on the Sabbath (see Luke 13:10-16). 

See how Jesus embodied this calm but firm noncooperation with those who attacked him? He did not take things personally but addressed the specific issue. I imagine that if he saw the synagogue leader in the marketplace the next day, he may have bought him a kumquat and drawn him in affable conversation. What do you think Jesus would have done?

Bombarded by attack and withdrawal everywhere

LETTING GO OF ATTACK AND WITHDRAWAL - Especially in our families and friendships, we must identify how assault and withdrawal defeat love. We can break away from these tendencies by learning a calm but firm noncooperation with those poisonous elements and by making initiatives of goodwill and blessing in the midst of such attacks. 

What we do when we meet as Christians should equip us to do this effectively elsewhere. Attack and withdrawal can render persons (even professing Christians) incapable of a positive marriage—giving oneself to another person, supporting this person for good in his or her life in every way possible (see Ephesians 5:22-33). 

It is not these persons’ fault. In this world, how could they know how to do this? In modern life, individual desire has come to be the standard and rule of everything. How are we to serve one another if desire is the standard and if what we desire can be acquired from many others besides our spouse? The spiritual malformation of children is an inevitable result. Their souls, bodies, and minds absorb the assault and withdrawal of their parents, who are constantly engaged with their children. They are soon attacked and frozen out, too. 

Their only hope of survival is to maintain a constant posture of withdrawal. These hardened, lonely souls, readied for addiction, aggression, isolation, and self-destructive behavior, turn to their bodies for self-gratification and to control others, or for isolation and self-destruction. Such children grow up to be malfunctioning souls in their workplace, professions, citizenship, and leadership. Many of them try to rectify the situation by working for solutions to the human problem, such as education or diversity or tolerance. 

These things are good, but they do not come close to the root of the human problem. Ignorance, prejudice, or intolerance draw upon the still deeper-lying soul structures of assault and withdrawal, which feed those negative influences. So to heal the open sore of social existence, congregations of apprentices to Jesus must return to the transcendent power of Christ in which they stand. They must drain the assault and withdrawal, the attack and coldness, from the individual men and women who form families under their ministry of Jesus and his kingdom.

 

Pray, criticize, mock, attack, withdraw or grin at your "enemy"?

Perhaps you know someone who has a habit of being sarcastic or making a cutting remark or pointing out whatever is wrong about your clothing today. I have been that person.

Several years ago, I started this experiment: What if I were to pray for a person each time I criticized that person to someone else or even only in my mind? This had several effects. First, it slowed me down so much that criticism became a rather time-consuming chore.

In that slower mode, I saw that perhaps my criticism was inaccurate. In praying for the person, I experienced such repentance for what I said that I became miserable. I didn’t enjoy being with myself. 

So why not use the time spent in criticism praying for that person to begin with or even shifting my thoughts entirely—say, to thanking God for that wildflower popping up out of the crack in the sidewalk? 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Pretend you’ve been hired as a “detective angel” to watch yourself and analyze your usual methods of attack and withdrawal. Your imaginary boss wants to know about X (you): 

-Does X usually attack or withdraw? Toward which people or sorts of people?
-What feelings within X are most likely to create the urge to attack or withdraw?
=When does X withdraw so X wants to appear too nice to attack?
=What are X’s preferred phrases of attack/withdrawal?
-Finally, what is at the root of X’s perceived need to attack or withdraw (fear, resentment, contempt, jealousy)? 

Make a preliminary report as best you can, promising to deliver more as the days go by. As you listen to your report, picture yourself in Psalm 23:5. You sit at a table uniquely prepared for you. Sitting across from you is an enemy or two (people who make life difficult), poised for attack (or withdrawal as their form of attack). Now picture God anointing your head with oil—signifying your special usefulness to him. Notice how your cup is always full so that you feel secure and you never look inadequate to that enemy. If you can do it, try to grin in blessing at your enemy instead of attacking.

 

Too common among our loved ones: assault & distancing

HOW LOVELESSNESS WORKS - Sin in our social dimension takes two forms of lovelessness: assault (attack) and withdrawal (distancing). If spiritual formation in Christ is to succeed, the power of assault and withdrawal must be broken so they are eliminated as indwelling realities or as postures we take toward others. 

They also must be successfully disarmed as they come toward us. They must be eliminated in our social environment—family or household, those with whom we work or play, our community—but especially in the fellowships of Christ’s followers. 

We assault others when we act against what is good for them, even with their consent. The more well-known forms of assault are dealt with in the last six of the Ten Commandments—murder, adultery, theft, and so on. We withdraw from others when we are indifferent to their well-being or perhaps even despise them. We “don’t care.” Withdrawal is usually a form of assaulting those we withdraw from. And assault usually involves distancing ourselves as well. 

Spiritual formation in Christ will mean becoming persons who would not (and therefore do not) assault others. A verbal assault (which can be done in refined as well as brutal ways—we speak of a “cutting remark”) is specifically designed to hurt its object and to inflict loss of respect in a person’s own eyes and before others. 

Many people never recover from a particular verbal assault, harassment, or degrading treatment. Most often this happens to people while very young or otherwise weak and unprotected. But withdrawal also wounds. The tongue can assault by withdrawal, by not speaking. As assault and withdrawal are eliminated, the social area of our lives becomes what God intended: a play of constant mutual blessing. Every contact with a human being should be one of goodwill and respect, with a readiness to make way for the other in suitable ways.

 

Lunch after putting our eggs in God's basket!

If you’ve been wounded by others, you may find the idea of “reciprocal rootedness in others” scary. Being wounded may have taught you to be self-contained, to get your needs met anyway you can because no one else will help you. 

Without a full realization of God’s enfolding love and power, no combination of information or guidance or affection can prevent or heal wounds. Without God, we can at best become hardened and simply carry on. The primary other for a human being, whether we understand it or not, is always God. 

So even though we risk and venture out into relationships (as part of the spiritual formation of our soul), we don’t put all our eggs in another person’s basket; we put them in God’s basket. We commit ourselves to God, and with God’s leading we reach out to another. We don’t expect this other person to necessarily nurture us. We go to God for nurture. Now and then, God may use that other person to nurture us, but we receive it as from God. The Lord really is our Shepherd—even in relationships.

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Consider risking a little and inviting to lunch (or some similar setting) someone who might be relatively new to you or with whom you have not interacted for a long time. 

Instead of thinking about what you might receive or what may happen, pray beforehand that God will work within the situation to bless both of you. If things turn out differently from what you would have liked (he says no to your invitation, she invites a third party, and so on), trust that God will work through this. 

Pray for that person before you meet, asking God to show you what you need to know to bless this person. As you converse, enjoy yourself but silently call God’s blessing on that person now and then. Afterward, ask God again to bless both you and that person, acknowledging that none of us lives unto our own self, nor do we die unto our own self. [1] See C. S. Lewis’s discussion of “The Inner Ring” and the desire to be in it as “one of the permanent mainsprings of human action.” The Weight of Glory (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973), 61.

 

Walking together or walking wounded alone

RECIPROCAL ROOTEDNESS IN OTHERS - Those spiritually formed in Christlikeness find the natural condition of life to be one of reciprocal rootedness in others. Stable, healthy living requires the assurance of others being for us. We are told in the earliest pages of the Bible that “it is not good that the man should be alone,” so God decided to make “a helper to be a match for him” (Genesis 2:18, PAR). 

Centuries later Paul pointed out that “not one of us lives unto himself and not one dies unto himself” (Romans 14:7, PAR). Human beings are really together only in God, and all other ways of “being with” fall short of the needs of basic human nature. If this assurance of others being for us is not there, we are but walking wounded. Our lives will more or less be in shambles until we die. 

Dealing with the spiritual formation of our social dimension begins with this woundedness. A child who is not adequately received in this world is likely to be incapable of giving and receiving love in decent human relationships for the rest of his life. He will be perpetually left out, if only in his imagination. And in this matter, imagination can have the force of reality. 

Severe wounds to our rootedness may also occur in later life. Various failures can bring rejection or detachment from parents and other significant figures. Unfaithfulness in a mate, divorce, failure in career advancement, disloyalty of children, or just never making it “in” may leave us disconnected from others. 

Lack of nourishment from deep connections with others means spiritual starvation in our every dimension. But if a child is totally received in his early years by his parents and siblings, he will likely have a rootedness about him that will enable him to withstand most forms of rejection that may come upon a human being. He will carry his solid relationships to and from his family members throughout life, being sustained by them even long after those loved ones are dead. He will receive a steady stream of rest and strength from them.

 

The irresistible attraction of a sacrificial, resurrected life

Try to picture a church board meeting, committee meeting, or parking lot discussion governed by this self-giving, self-perpetuating love. You and I would love each other with Christlike love, and together we would love the third person with us.

Wouldn’t everyone want to be a Christian? Wouldn’t wounded people flock to our church? Such love, however, involves an openhanded death: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16, NIV, emphasis added).

We will have to die to ourselves—to the desire to be first, to control, to be admired, to be sought after. For “we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be revealed, then we will be revealed with him, glorious” (Colossians 3:3-4, PAR).

But what could be better than being “hid with Christ in God?” That’s exactly where a person in union with God would want to be. As we die to ourselves, we come to participate in a resurrected sort of life (see Philippians 3:11). With such a Jesus-based way of life, we become one who nourishes and cherishes the person next to us. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Consider how you need to lay yourself down as on an altar in order to nourish others. How do you need to interact with others in order to lay down your life for them? Look back through this book at sentences you have marked. What does laying down your life involve? 

Perhaps desires, thoughts, and habits, such as interrupting or insisting on your own way? What disciplines is God calling you to? Pray, thanking God for this possibility of living a resurrected sort of life that will extend life-giving love to others, especially in church situations. Ask God to keep showing you not only what you need to lay down but also how to live that resurrected sort of life in Christ.

 

Sweet society of love

FORMATION IS NOT PRIVATE Spiritual formation, good or bad, is always profoundly social. You cannot keep it to yourself. Anyone who says, “It’s just between me and God” has misunderstood God as well as “me.” Relationships must be transformed if we are to be transformed. 

Jesus gave a sure mark of the outcome of spiritual formation: We become people who love one another (see John 13:35). This love is not unspecified: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (verse 34, NRSV, emphasis added). The “love” in question here is identified as what we do in Christ, as he has done for us. This love makes us ready to “lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). 

Failure to love others as Jesus loves us chokes off the flow of the eternal kind of life that our whole human system cries out for (see 1 John 3:14). To welcome others, to make a place for them and provide for them, is one of the most life-giving and life-receiving things a human being can do. These are the basic, universal acts of love. 

Our lives were meant to be full of such acts, drawing on the abundance of God. Such love is possible because of what God is: love. The profoundly good news is not just that God loves us. A pretty mean person can love someone for special reasons (see Matthew 5:46-47). 

But God is love and sustains love for us from his basic reality as love, which dictates his Trinitarian nature. God is in himself a sweet society of love where three persons complete a social matrix. Not only does each one love and receive love, but each has a shared love for another, the third person. The nature of personality is inherently communal, and only the Trinity does justice to what personality is. 

This sort of love is meant to happen routinely among God’s people. In the church as the body of Christ, members nourish one another with the transcendent power that raised up Christ from the dead and now flows through each member to the others.

 

What's your next step to restful bodily serenity?

A pastor friend of mine explained that he had to take a two-week vacation because it took him an entire week to wind down. Then he could enjoy the second week. How long does it take for your body to wind all the way down like a windup clock that stops only after the daily winding of it ceases? 

When a body is practiced in Sabbath keeping, it can enter into unhurried peace at the drop of a hat—drifting off to sleep in a waiting room, soaking in the sun’s rays on a bench at a soccer field, enjoying stillness even when waiting at a traffic signal. 

But in the beginning of developing such a habit, the body rebels. So we cultivate customary ways to “Sabbath” ourselves down—discovering the settings, the props, and the important preliminary steps that help (for example, not overscheduling ourselves). Don’t be concerned that your steps are small; just be determined to take them. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Consider what your next step is in advancing a Sabbath practice for your body. What kind of solitude and silence are you ready to attempt: a morning without your cell phone, an afternoon in the park, a fast from all media for a week, a one-day retreat, an extended retreat? 

At first, each of these may feel as if you’re giving up something precious, but it won’t take long to see that you have gained much more than you have given up. You will have given your body space to unlearn its tricks of hurry, competition, achievement, and manipulation. It will have tasted that sense of abiding with God.

 

Body as a living sacrifice - cared for with Sabbath rest

SABBATH MOMENTS - The body must be properly cherished and cared for, not as our master, but as a servant of God. Our body is to be regarded as holy because it is owned and inhabited by God. So we give it proper nourishment, exercise, and rest. 

Overwork misuses the body, but it has become the new “drug of choice.” Often this is associated with excessive competition and trying to beat others in some area of life. Sometimes this is just a matter of wearing our body out in order to succeed. God never gives us too much to do. He long ago gave us these words: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2, KJV). 

The practical center of proper care for the body is Sabbath. Sabbath is inseparable from worship, and, indeed, genuine worship is Sabbath. When we come to the place where we can joyously “do no work” (Leviticus 23:3, KJV), it will be because God has become so exalted in our mind and body that we can trust him with our lives and our world and can take our own hands off them. 

For most of us, we can achieve Sabbath first in the practice of solitude and silence. We must carefully seek these disciplines by cultivating and dwelling in them. When they become established in our soul and our body, we can practice them in company with others. 

But the body must be weaned away from its tendencies to take control, to run the world, to achieve and produce, to attain gratification. Rest is one primary mark of the condition of Sabbath in the body, as unrest is a primary mark of its absence. So if we really intend to submit our body as a living sacrifice to God, our first step might well be to start getting enough sleep. Sleep is a good first use of solitude and silence. It is also a good indicator of how thoroughly we trust in God.

 

Who's the most beautiful you know?

A group of people were recently asked to think of the most beautiful woman they knew. Without consulting each other, they didn’t pick a glamorous celebrity. All of them picked women they knew who were much older and very wise. All the women chosen had gray hair! These people laughed to think that they associated beauty with gray hair, because aging and gray hair are so unpleasant to our culture but so honored in God’s view (see Proverbs 16:31; 20:29). 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Choose one of these three topics to journal about or at least ponder while you’re driving: Consider how much time you spend on sprucing up your body—haircuts, grooming, buying body care products, shopping for clothes. What effect does spending this much time have on you? What messages are you sending to yourself (and your children)? 

How would you finish these sentences? I must look____________. I must dress____________.

 
--If you had just one change of clothes (which is what more than half of the people in the world have), how hard would that be for you?
--Think about how you look in the morning before you’ve arranged your hair. How hard would it be for you to live without a comb or other hair accessory?
--Consider why aging seems so negative in our culture and the supreme compliment it is to be told you look ten or twenty years younger than you are. Talk to God about how important (or unimportant) outward looks are to you.
--Ask God to show you how important it is to you that wisdom (sometimes) comes with age.
--What disciplines of simplicity or frugality in dress and appearance might be helpful to you?

 

"Power dressing," sarcasm, "knowing" looks & remarks?

MISUSES OF THE BODY - Here are some other things we can do to place our body and its parts fully at the disposal of the redeeming power of God living in us. No longer idolize your body. Human ruin comes from placing ourselves at the center of our universe, in place of God. 

This leads to worship of the body and to a life of sensuality. Then our body becomes our primary source of gratification and the chief instrument for getting what we want. For most people, their body governs their life. Even professing Christians often devote to their spiritual growth only a tiny fraction of the time they devote to their body.

So no longer make the body an object of ultimate concern. You don’t need to worry about what will happen to it—sickness, repulsiveness, aging, death—for you have placed God in charge of all that, and any issues that arise in this area you freely take up with him in prayer.

Do not misuse your body, especially as a source of sensual gratification or of domination or manipulation of others. Bodily pleasure is not in itself a bad thing, but when it is exalted to a necessity and we become dependent upon it, then we are slaves of our body and its feelings. Only misery lies ahead. 

When we quit using our body to dominate or control others, we do not present our body in ways that elicit sexual thoughts, feelings, and actions from others. We do not try to be sexy. Giving up these things, of course, could be a fatal blow to the fashion industry and to other large segments of the economy, but we have to leave them to look after themselves. Misusing the body also includes intimidation by means of our body. The most common forms of it are social, for example “power dressing,” sarcasm, and “knowing” looks and remarks. Having given up our body to God, we do not then use it in these ways.

 

The strange & glorious prostrate position!

 Perhaps the previous suggestion to lie flat in body-dedication sounds strange to you. You might wonder, Can’t I just think about doing it instead of going through this exercise? If your desire is to retrain your body, you need to employ your body in the exercise. You may want to go back and rehearse your strongest and most frequent feelings in the mirror to see how your body responds to those feelings within you before doing this. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - As you lay your body down on the floor as on an altar before God, quiet yourself. Perhaps start with your eyes. Ask God to take charge of your eyes and to fill them with his life and use them for his purposes. Perhaps you want to ask God to keep your eyes from expressions of disgust or terror. Then, ask God to show you what it would look like to offer love with your eyes: to impart compassion with your eyes, to reveal purpose with your eyes. 

Do the same with other parts of your body such as your eyebrows and mouth, your shoulders, and your hands. What tilt of your head or position of your arms embodies love, compassion, or purpose? In the future, as you read the Gospels, notice Jesus’ bodily positions. What did he do with his hands? When and with whom did he squat? At what persons did he gaze? Use these questions to admire how Jesus offered love and purpose in his body.

Put your body into it: solitude, meditate, lie flat & dance?! Yes! Let's do this!!!

RELEASING THE BODY TO GOD - Certain steps can be taken so that the body can serve as a primary ally in Christlikeness. These steps help us “present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, very pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1, PAR). 

This total yielding of every part of our body to God, until the very tissues and muscles that make it up are inclined toward God and godliness, breaks all conformity with worldly life in this age. It transforms us into conformity with the age to come by completing the renewal of our mind—our powers of thought and imagination and judgment, which are deeply rooted in our body. 

We must actually release our body to God. This needs to be a definite action, renewed as appropriate, perhaps on a yearly basis. But you will not drift into this position before God, and you will not stay there without decisive action. Take a day in silent and solitary retreat. Quiet your soul and your body and let them get clear of the fog of your daily burdens and preoccupations. 

Meditatively pray some central Scriptures before the Lord, especially those dealing directly with the body (see above; also Romans 8:5-14; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Colossians 3:5-10). I recommend that you then lie on the floor, facedown or faceup, and formally surrender your body to God. Then go over the main parts of your body and do the same for each one. Ask God to take charge of your body and each part, to fill it with his life and use it for his purposes. 

Accentuate the positive; don’t just think of not sinning with your body. You will find that increasing freedom will follow naturally from active consecration of your body to God’s power and his purpose. Remember, a sacrifice is something taken up in God. 

Give plenty of time to this ritual of sacrifice. Do not rush. When you are done, give God thanks. Arise and spend some time in praise. (An ecstatic reading—chant and walk or dance—of Psalms 145–150 would be an excellent exercise.) Put your body into it. Later, share what you have done with a spiritual friend or pastor and ask him or her to bless it. Review your ritual of sacrifice in thought and prayer from time to time over the following weeks and plan to renew the same ritual surrender year by year.

 

Body transformation - "fake it until you make it"

You may wonder, Won’t the body naturally change its habits if the heart is transformed? While a change of heart is primary, the outer change is not automatic. You work on inner and outer change concurrently, and each process informs the other. While we guard our heart and readjust it as needed, we also need to confront the body in its regimented habits.

We teach our body to “fake it till we make it” (as the twelve-step saying goes) to help it behave according to what the heart is learning. To live a life of faking it is wrong, of course, and so we’re always working through heart issues. While I’m learning to pray for the coworker who exasperates me (and therefore let my heart be changed), I ask God to help me regularly form my lips into a smile at that coworker. If I do this, I will be amazed at how that smile makes it easier for my heart to adjust. 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Pick one of your body movements that doesn’t reflect the love, joy, and peace of Jesus. Don’t start with something too big. Something like tapping your foot in impatience will do. Choose what you could do instead. Perhaps you could try the humble stance of putting your hands behind your back. This makes it easier for the heart to be humble, which in turn makes it easier to stand that way. 

At the same time, refocus your thoughts (and heart), perhaps praying Psalm 23 as we did earlier. Even as you theoretically “fake it,” you can be authentically honest: “I’m operating on the theory that you, O Lord, really are my Shepherd, that you have provided everything I need, even though I have no idea what’s going on.” 

Picture that sheep lying in the green pasture so content, not needing a thing, even as you wait anxiously at a traffic signal thinking of your child waiting in the cold, as you lie on a gurney in an emergency room waiting for the nurse to return with the pain medication, or as you wait in line wondering why all these people chose to come to the same store at the same moment.

 

How do we get control of our body?

RETRAINING THE BODY - Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness is the process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it takes on the character of the inner being of Jesus himself. The result is that the “outer” life of the individual increasingly becomes a natural expression of the inner reality of Jesus and his teachings. Doing what he said and did increasingly becomes a part of who we are. 

But for this to happen, our body must increasingly be poised to do what is good and to refrain from what is evil. The inclinations to wrongdoing that inhabit our body’s parts must be eliminated. Then the body becomes a primary ally in Christlikeness. 

Without the elimination of such inclinations, the part of our character that lives in our body carries us away. James observed the incredible power of the tongue to stir up the inclinations of the body. It is perhaps the last bodily part to submit to goodness and rightness. No one can tame it. Physical violence is nearly always introduced by verbal violence (see James 3:5-6). 

It is only as we habitually subject our tongue to the grace of God as an instrument reserved to do his will that grace comes literally to inhabit and govern it. And when that happens the effects spread throughout the body. The proper retraining and nurturing of the body is essential to Christlikeness. When our heart (will, spirit) comes to new life in God, the old “programs” still run, primarily in our body. “Sin dwells within me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18, PAR). 

But when the law or force of the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus becomes a real presence in our body, that opens the way to liberation from the force of sin in our bodily parts (see Romans 7:23). The result is that the body increasingly becomes a major part of the hidden source from which our lives immediately flow.

 

Our body speaks volumes about us

Who we really are inside is communicated by our manner—what our body is “ready” to do at any minute. The way we stand, the look on our face, the height of our shoulders tells people the condition of our heart. Our body speaks volumes about us. “The look” is subtle but reveals a great deal. 

Jesus talks about “looking to lust” (see Matthew 5:28), and a body trained to do so can scarcely not do it. Others steeped in disgust have trained their face to look with disgust, and that is noticed, especially by those younger, less powerful, or somehow subservient on the social ladder. 

Sometimes people send mixed signals. They try to “act like a Christian,” but their body betrays them. When I’m not around anyone I need to impress, what would it take to get me to yell at someone? What would have to happen for my hand and arm to hit someone? 

TODAY’S EXPERIMENT - Stand before a full-length mirror. Imagine for a moment you’re speaking to someone you dislike. Let your body move into its natural pose for this. Do not mask your true feelings. Examine your body to see if you’ve arranged it in some way to protect yourself—perhaps your arms are crossed. Notice the position of your eyebrows. Are they raised or lowered? Knitted? Pay attention to how your mouth is set or how your tongue is positioned within your mouth. 

Start over. Let’s say you are now facing someone from whom you wish a favor. Position yourself. Notice what your eyes, mouth, and arms tell you. 

Start again and recall a stressful issue. Look at yourself. Where do you carry your stress? Some bear it in their shoulders, hunching them. Others find their stomachs tightening. 

Speak to God about the ways you’ve trained your body. Admit the underlying settled attitudes that your body favors. If you’re confused, ask God, who is “acquainted with all [your] ways” (Psalm 139:3), to help you. God can inform us of these things gently.

 

Your body dominion - to enhance or harm?

THE BODY’S ROLE IN SPIRITUAL FORMATION - The body lies at the center of the spiritual life. It is potential energy, and to access that energy is the constant human goal and problem. If there is gasoline in my tank, I can liberate the energy in it and make it do the work of moving my car. 

Therefore, my body is the primary place of my dominion and my responsibility. As I proceed in life, first I take dominion over my body itself (eye movement, voice, motion of limbs, and so on). 

But very quickly I attempt dominion over others, who may have organized their desires contrary to my own. So I experience destructive emotions, especially fear, anger, envy, jealousy, and resentment (example: Cain). These may, in time, develop into settled attitudes of hostility, contempt, or indifference. 

Such attitudes make me ready to harm others, and these attitudes quickly settle into my body. There they become more or less overt tendencies to act without thinking in ways that harm others or myself. If left unchecked, they will rule the rest of my life and will constantly inject poison into my social world and personal relations. 

Most of what is called character (good or bad) in normal human life consists in what our bodies are or are not “at the ready” to do in specific situations. These “readinesses” govern our responses and are seen by observant people who then determine how to react to us. 

For usual human beings in usual circumstances, their body runs their life. Contrary to the words of Jesus, life is, for them, not more than food, nor the body more than clothing (see Matthew 6:25). Their time and energy is almost wholly devoted to how their body looks, smells, and feels, and to how it can be used to meet ego needs such as admiration, sexual gratification, and power over others. That is a perversion of the role of the body in life as God intended it, and it results in “death,” in alienation from God and the loss of all we have invested our lives in (see Galatians 6:8).