Head and Heart

What good does it do for a person to have money and fame if they have lost the core of their being?  Or "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?" Mark 8:38. I used to think this verse was talking about salvation, what good does it do a person to have worldly goods and then go to hell?  I've come to realize more may be in this verse than I first realized years ago.

Many of you remember when I began a new stage of my spiritual journey several years ago; I have spoken at Grace about the impact that this verse has had on my life.  Could this verse still refer to salvation?  Absolutely!  Could it also mean more?  Perhaps.  

Many of us were raised in churches that focused on knowledge acquisition and sin management.  We were taught to have all the facts and not to sin; in fact many of us were taught that if we had the facts, we would not sin.  Yet when Jesus speaks to the Pharisees,  he says they are like whitewashed tombs, pretty on the outside, dead on the inside. A works-based theology gets you right to that spot: pretty dead.

Our souls are the deepest parts of us, encompassing our hearts, minds, bodies, emotions, and relationships.  Our souls are like an entire living organism, full of many different systems, the way a tree has roots, a trunk, branches, and leaves.   Our souls must be nurtured and cared for the way we care for an infant or a tender plant.

How do we care for our souls?  We linger in the Word of God, we savor small bites rather than eating a side of beef.  We listen for God in his word.  We talk to others about the Word of God.  We serve God by serving others.  We LIVE OUT the faith  given to us, not in our own strength, but in His.  We look for ways that He is at work around us.  We look for the Kingdom of God now.

We can feed our souls a fast-food diet of social media, vainglory, and greed, or we can slow down and savor the goodness of the Bread of Life.