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We adults often talk about God being with us and inside us all the time. Do you ever wonder how children view this reality? A couple took their 3-yr. old boy to church on a Sunday when his baby sister was to be baptized. The pastor spoke to him saying that his Mom and Dad were promising to help his sister grow up to be a Christian, and to have God live in her heart. The boy listened very attentively. The next morning he showed up for breakfast with his hand tucked inside his pajama shirt, and announced, "You know what? God is in my heart! I feel him bumping around in there." We’re hearing a lot about the heart or soul these days. In the past decade even the scientists have begun to reconsider the existence of the soul. The emptiness and anxiety that comes with modern life demand that we acknowledge the need for something more than the "self." Psychotherapist James Hillman was among the first to rediscover the soul as an important concept in psychotherapy. I love the title of his book co-authored with Michael Ventura: "We've Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World's Getting Worse." It was Hillman who popularized the notion that in order to develop our full human potential, each individual must undertake to "grow a soul." Each of us is like an acorn, born with a soul seed. It is our job to grow this seed within us and so become what God has created us to be. Thomas Moore, one of Hillman's "soul disciples," hits the nail on the head when he identifies soul-sickness as an epidemic sweeping our planet. He writes, "Emptiness; meaninglessness; vague depression; disillusionment about marriage, family, relationships; a loss of values; yearning for personal fulfillment; a hunger for spirituality" are all the symptoms Moore identifies. The cause? "Loss of soul". So what is this "soul?" What does it do for us? What are we supposed to do for it? We talk about "soul music" and "soul food," about "having soul" and "soulfulness," as though we know what we mean. But can we define it? If the soul is not simply the divine spark, the spirit that animates each human being, and if it is more than just a well-developed and balanced sense of ego and superego, what is it? Perhaps the best comparison we might try is the Hebrew concept of "heart" ("lev"). This notion of heart includes within it both the range of human emotions and desires and the logical workings of the human mind. The "heart" (which was often spoken of in tandem with the soul) was the center of the human person, the common residence for all we think and feel. Likewise the "soul" has come to represent the seedbed of all those facets of our being that make us human. In his book, "Care of the Soul", Moore cites an old concept that should be rediscovered and celebrated by Christians everywhere this Advent. "Renaissance doctors," Moore states, "said that the essence of each person originates as a star in the heavens." This is very different, Moore continues, "from the modern view that a person is what she makes herself to be". What better time to rededicate ourselves to developing and nurturing our soul, our "starborn nature," than in this season of the Star. Our individual soul is a gift from the star of our origin, the star that transmits the light of God's redeeming love down onto a darkened world. Our souls are seeds sown in us by Jesus, the Morning Star. Growing that seed-soul is the responsibility each one of us takes on when we commit ourselves to Christ. The soul-lessness of the world is severe, so we all are called to do some special soul aerobics to strengthen our soul and help it grow. There are five areas in which the Christian dedicated to soul-crafting should exercise to nourish the soul and grow in Christ's love. 1. Community. We need each other. Native Alaskans have long recognized the need for community. Their survival depends on it. Early Alaskan sourdoughs tell story after story of how frontier families leaned on each other in time of need. Living in urban Anchorage it can be easy to lose sight of our need for each other. Why do I need community? I have my home, my job, plenty of food. I have my TV, my internet. Why do I need others? A tornado stormed through the south one day. A story in a small town weekly newspaper made this report, "We are pleased to announce that the tornado which blew away the Presbyterian Church last Friday did no real damage to the town". Yes, we really do need each other, not just for the needs of our bodies, but for the needs of our souls. God created us this way. When you shop for a new car there are certain features that come as standard equipment. Other features are optional and you have to pay more for them. Well, God has created us with an inner space or vacuum that is meant to be filled only with God, only with Love. It comes as standard equipment with every human model. Being a part of a community of faith is how God designed us so that our soul needs are satisfied. To grow our souls we need to nurture community. We also need meaningful work. Now the problem with work is that it is not as secular as world thinks. The work we do causes our souls to flourish or stifle. The sad thing is that many are forced to choose between work and soul-fulness. If our work doesn't help us tend our soul by tending to our families and tending to our world, then it will eat away at our soul. A third way to nurture our soul is Food. Any meal can be communion if it provides "soul-food." A father took his children to a restaurant and his 6-year-old son asked if he could say grace. As they bowed their heads, he said, God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Dad gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen! Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, one woman remarked, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream!" Is your soul "good already?" The promise of the Christmas story is that it can be. I took me 40 years to figure out that my soul needed the vastness and beauty of Alaska to grow. Each visit outside the state serves as a reminder that my soul has its roots in Alaska. But even in the midst of vast physical space, our souls require small spaces to grow as well. The need for soul-space used to be hallowed by the traditional "prayer closet" set up in many Victorian homes. What would your soul require as its special space? A window, a piece of art, a comfy chair, a babbling stream, a candle, the smell of incense? Do you even know your soul well enough to know what space it needs? Music can also help our souls grow. Studies indicate that 40% of our worship experiences need good music. I’ve had well-meaning church members say to me, "No offense, Dave, but I often get more out of the music than the sermon." At least this is better than those who get more out of the children’s sermon. Now I don’t take offense at these comments, but it does make me think. Instead of studying the Bible, theological dictionaries, and commentaries, maybe I should get voice lessons so I can sing my sermons! There is something about an inspirational piece of music that has the power to connect with our soul. In his book, "A Path With Heart", Jack Kornfield tells the story about a tribe in east Africa where the art of true intimacy is fostered even before birth. In this tribe, the birth date of a child is not counted from the day of its physical birth nor even the day of conception, as in other village cultures. For this tribe the birth date comes from the first time the child is a thought in its mother's mind. Aware of her intention to conceive a child with a particular father, the mother then goes off to sit alone under a tree. There she sits and listens until she can hear the song of the child that she hopes to conceive. Once she has heard it, she returns to her village and teaches it to the father so that they can sing it together as they make love, inviting the child to join them. After the child is conceived, she sings it to the baby in her womb. Then she teaches it to the old woman and midwives of the village, so that throughout the labor and at the miraculous moment of birth itself, the child is greeted with its song. After the birth all the villagers learn the song of their new member and sing it to the child when it falls or hurts itself. This song becomes a part of the marriage ceremony when the child is grown, and at the end of life, his or her loved ones will gather around the deathbed and sing this song for the last time." What a wonderful way to nurture our souls! To coax the song that hides deep within the soul of every person to come to our awareness. Mary had such a song, a song for her newborn son, a song we call the Magnificat. Christmas is only a few days away. And we all know that these next few days will be a time of lots of community togetherness with strangers in the stores and friends and family at home. It will be a time for work of all kinds and a time for too much food. Hopefully, your soul and mine will have a chance to have some space to be still and contemplate, and to be quiet and reflect on the meaning of Christmas. And surely it will be a time to sing songs that hopefully will stir us at the deepest places in our souls. I think the Grinch said it best: And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?" "It came without ribbons! It came without tags!" "It came without packages, boxes or bags!" And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store." "Maybe Christmas. . . perhaps. . means a little bit more!" We all know that Christmas means so much more than stores. Advent and Christmas is a great time to be intentional about growing our souls. So why not give your starborn nature the community, the work, the food, the space, and the song it craves and deserves? |
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12.22.02 - Starborn Souls (1 Thessalonians 3:9-13)
