MIND, BODY AND SOUL – ARE THEY WELL?
Did you know that you are a triune being?
You are mind. Your thoughts and emotions.
Your body. Your flesh and your bones.
Your soul. Your spiritual being.
They are not three people. They are all you. They are all inter-related.
And they all wound. And they all bear scars.
A wound is current pain and damage. A scar is a reminder of past pain and damage that has healed. And yet a scar can still throb many years after healing has substantively taken place.
The inter-relation between them can operate in positive or negative ways. An aching or painful body can bring down emotions. Low emotions can lead to deteriorating physical symptoms and thereby a downward, self-feeding, cycle can develop. Exhilarating physical sensations, such as a good walk in a beautiful place, can raise emotions, which in turn generate physical benefits.
It’s not a precise science and the counteracting effect of one on the other is not guaranteed, but the general case gives something of a prescription. Keep them both in check, body and mind, and you will see some benefits.
But what about the soul? The bit that connects with God?
It is fed sometimes by the physical manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Tingling, shaking, speaking in tongues, a sense of being hugged by a loving Father, falling over. All these happen sometimes to some people. “I could just feel his presence” is the exception, not the rule. If you never have felt these physical things, “do not be afraid”, to quote the angels, and sometimes God himself, he is still real he is still there. He hasn’t gone anywhere.
Mostly the soul is fed by what we believe to be true of God. And most of what we know to be true of God, the basis of our faith, is his Word. Reading the bible, singing songs of praise, teaching and preaching, discussing with others and sometimes direct or indirect prophetic revelation. All of this competes with two things – false teaching (inside and outside the church) and circumstances.
Matt Redman wrote a well-known song “Blessed be your name”. In it we sing about God’s name being blessed. By that we are proclaiming him to be good and sovereign and the only one. The name “I Am” (Ex 3) means that he is both worthy and the source of all things. He is greater than all and all that we need.
The song starts by saying that his name is blessed in plenty and abundance. But also in the deserts and wilderness. When we experience blessing, turn back to him, in praise. And when things enter darkness, still say, “Blessed be your name”.
Redman does not glibly pen this. He admits “there is pain in the offering”. Praising God in a dark place is an act of will. But it’s also a response to his command. And an act of obedience.
“5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Jesus summarised the law in the same terms:
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[f] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’[g] There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)
Combining Deuteronomy with the command in Leviticus 19:18 to love others, Jesus summarises the law, the commands of God, in these two statements. These are fundamental to an obedient faith.
But what about when circumstances are such that our love and respect for ourselves, or that which we have for others, calls into question God’s role in our circumstances?
What about when we enter the desert, walk the wilderness and feel darkness surround us?
What then?
It may manifest in physical pain and deterioration or emotional turmoil.
When parts of us are damaged or wounded what does that do to our inter-connected soul? Our spirit that communicates with the presence of the Holy Spirit within us?
And the biggest response when darkness falls is a question – why?
Its natural. It’s a very human response.
When we experience emotional trauma our minds can operate two defence mechanisms – denial and disassociation. Denial is refusing to think about the painful situation, denying it is happening, as a way of not having to cope with it. Disassociation is a recognition that it is happening but removing ourselves from it. Both are ways of coping. And people who face these things speak of feeling numb.
For physical pain the equivalent is shock. Wounds that should be excruciating may not be felt while in shock because the body’s sensors shut down, do not send the pain messages, and so the body becomes physically numb.
This may give an indication what happens to the wounded soul.
Our spirits can become numb. Through denial, disassociation or shock.
Questioning God is a legitimate response. It does not change who he is. Who he was in the abundance and the plenty. He is the same God in the wilderness, in the desert and in the darkness. He is still good. He is still sovereign. He still loves us. He still has eternal plans for us that will prosper us. And he sent his son to live an abundant life, whatever the world throws at us.
But if our soul is fed by what we know of God, our questions can wound our soul with the possibility of answers that are untrue of who he is , the living God. Our natural desire to find a reason and even someone to blame, can wound our souls. But souls can heal and leave scars as reminders.
Meanwhile denial, disassociation and shock can leave us numb.
And our numb souls will not connect with God, will not hear from him and will not experience his presence.
But he is still there. Feeling our pain. Loving us to the end.
And the natural numbness and soul wounds that we feel in the face of traumatic events makes It is well with my soul all the more remarkable. The show of that name was hosted last night, promoted by Alison and Peter Frost, and I am so glad I said yes when they asked if they could! It was an incredibly moving evening.
It is the story of Horatio Spafford and Phillip Bliss who together penned the hymn It is well with my soul. Spafford was a successful lawyer and lay preacher. Bliss a hymn writer and musician whose talents were in demand. Their common connection (amongst many) was DL Moody the Chicago evangelist.
The abundance and plenty in both their lives is highlighted in two successful careers, both in demand, happy marriages and Spafford’s four daughters and Bliss’ newly born son. Bliss had seen the horrors of the civil war and his part in the campaign to disassemble slavery which he abhorred.
Bliss had two job offers, one to work with DL Moody for no pay, because “God will provide” , the other an attractive role in San Francisco with a handsome salary and accommodation “with a view of the bay”. While discerning which path to follow disaster struck with the Great Chicago fire that devastated “the windy City” and they lost all their possessions and their home.
Along with other families, the Bliss’ lodged with the Spaffords, and their friendship was cemented.
Sometime later, Horatio Spafford stayed in the USA while his wife and four daughters went ahead to make plans for their European jaunt to France. The sail ship struck another vessel mid-Atlantic and all bar a few dozen on board lost their lives. Anna Spafford informed her husband of the tragedy with a two-word telegram, “Saved alone”.
Home again, Anna and Horatio grieved the loss of their daughters deeply.
In his book on suffering, “Is God to blame?”, Gregory Boyd concludes his discussion with the example of Melanie who lost her child. He writes:
“(theological perspectives) cannot give Melanie her child back …nor fully take away the pain of her loss. But by accepting the ambiguity of a war-torn creation and the clarity of God’s beauty in Christ, Melanie was able to rekindle her love for God and her passion for life. The painful ambiguity of life cannot crush one shoes eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ. Next to this, nothing else really matters” (p197)
It is worth noting that Melanie had to rekindle that love. It is no easy fix. And different questions and realities need to be asked and accepted. This is not an overnight panacea but a long process of focusing on who God truly is and how the world as it is fits into the world as it will be, the eternal plan.
But that is what the Spafford’s did. Horatio captured it in a poem. He gave it to his composer friend, Phillip Bliss, and the hymn was created.
This hymn:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul
It is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!
It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul
Whatever the state of your soul I invite you to come afresh this Holy Week to enter into that story. The preparations the night before, at supper with his friends on Thursday evening. The whole story told through activities, prayer stations and hospitality in the morning. A service at Purley Baptist Church or a quiet reflective hour with the cross at the centre.
Come sit at the foot of the cross.
Celebrate the glory of the empty tomb and the promise of eternal life through resurrection. Death defeated and sins forgiven.
Look to the true God. The one who loved us enough to give his own son. The son who knew pain and disgrace and injustice and even death.
Come heal your souls and open ourselves up to the one true God.
Pray for those whose souls are wounded. That they may have their wounds turned to scars. And the numbness, and shock, and denial and disassociation relieved. To know the deep deep love of Jesus.
And be able to say, whatever the world has in store….it is well with my soul.
Every blessing
Doug
Vicar@christchurchpurley.org.uk