Soul With A Body

This past Sunday our pastor said something that grabbed my attention in one of those “a ha!” moments that don’t happen very often.  We’ve been talking about toxins that can steal away our focus from God, those things that, as they build up, pull us further and further away from Him.

That’s when he made this fairly simple statement, which grabbed me perhaps more than it might normally have done.  He said, “You are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul.”

At this point I need to admit something. Right now, I am seeing just about everything, every message, every verse, every song I hear, with my friend Brian in mind. You know how that goes, of course. Whatever obstacle or emotion or event is occurring in your life right now, it seems every song you hear speaks to you and has a specific message you needed to hear.  Or you go to church and are amazed  at just how much the message, today, seems like it is just for you.

I have to admit, I think those things can go one of two ways.  Either, yes, every message, every song IS just for you or, perhaps they are not focused at your needs, but you just think they are.  Regardless, there is nothing wrong with taking meaning from something when you are going through a life event where you need…something. You need hope or you need a lifeline or you need someone to say what you are thinking so you can go, “Yes! That’s it! I feel the same way!”

If you followed me as I drifted, please slide back to center with me now and let’s jump into this “soul with a body” thing. In my little sphere of influence right now, I’m living with an, admittedly selfishly, very heavy heart for Brian. But if I think on this phrasing, that we are a soul with a body, not a body with a soul, I begin to feel a little bit better.

If you have listened to Matt Redman’s “10,000 Reasons“, maybe the last verse has captured your attention:

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

THAT right there is hope! That right there is all of us who know the name of Jesus intimately in our final hours, as we see that glorious light shining, welcoming us in. Friends, that right there is the end goal, and it’s Brian’s future and our future.  What a future!

A soul with a body, not a body with a soul. How depressing would it be to live a life focused entirely on your human body, which is extremely short term (I can guarantee nobody is living 10,000 years), and have spent no time planning for the future?

Once a year my wife and I meet with our financial adviser to assure retirement planning is on track, take a look at what we can do to improve our financial status here and later and give consideration to additional things we can do to work toward a more comfortable future.  But that future is short-term. It’s not long-term. If I am fortunate enough to live into my 90s, even, I will not have lived a long life overall.  Oh, sure, my physical body will DEFINITELY feel it has lived a long life, but heck, I’ll just be beginning!

And when we start that next phase, living in Heavenly eternity, we’ll be healthy, we’ll be happy, we’ll never want for anything ever again. No insurance paperwork, no worrying about how to meet the utility bills next month, no worry over life and death situations. Life…and death. Why does that scare us so? 

I’ll offer this up. It scares us because we spend most of our lives believing we are a body with a soul and death means the end of the body. HA! How foolish are we? We are SOULS WITH A BODY!!! That’s a good thing!

Brian, my brother, you are a soul with a body, barely into your existence with God. I suspect you understand this much better than most of the rest of us do right now because you’ve been forced to. I want the rest of us to work to comprehend just how simply we need to think to better plan for our futures. There is nothing I can do financially to secure my future beyond my living years on this earth. But there is a LOT I can do to secure my future for 10,000 years and beyond I’ll have in God’s glory, if I want it.

Praise God I took that step and know my future is secure. And praise Him that He loves me unconditionally despite my flailing about on His earth. He knows one day I get to go home to him. And thank you, Brian, because your witness essentially just preached a new message to everyone who reads this today. 

~ by relevantedge on October 18, 2013.