Is It Well with My Soul?!

New Sermon Series - Is It Well with Your Soul?

What does that mean? First of all, what is my soul? Where is my soul? How do I know it’s well?

When you go to the doctor’s office, they check your vital signs - blood pressure, your pulse, breathing rate, temperature.

But what are the vital signs for the soul, that indicate whether or not it’s well?

That’s what we hope to dig into this morning. Mindy Caliquire gives us an example of what that looks like.

She tells story of being at the Boston Marathon in 1996, watching the runners. She was positioned at what’s known as Heartbreak Hill, which is at about the 20 mile mark.

It’s this incredibly difficult part of marathon, gotta run up this brutal hill right at a point when your body is absolutely exhausted.

These world class runners are attacking the hill at aggressive pace - when one runner begins to just fall apart. He starts stumbling, falters over to curbside, other runners giving him space, and then he simply collapses onto a front lawn

Eyes rolled back up in his head, body twitching violently, no control of his senses. In silence and fear, the crowd watched as the emergency personnel immediately tended to him.

Thankfully, he ended up being fine. But his body had just given up. Quit on him. It had become overwhelmed. He’d pushed it too far.

Mindy says that she herself hit her own Heartbreak Hill that same year. But it was on a emotional and spiritual level.

She’d been pushing herself too hard. Too many difficult things happening at one time.

She was depleted, overwhelmed. She knew she was not well. And she realized it had to do with her soul. It was not well with her soul.

And that’s not an uncommon experience…relational discord and disconnection…feeling lost, confused, adrift…if you’re constantly angry, easily irritated, walking around with a low level of rage…beset with sadness, depression…these are symptoms of a soul that is not well.

You might ask, what does a well soul look like?

We can see it in the story of Horatio Spafford

Horatio was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago in 1870’s - married, his wife’s name was Anna. They had five children.

In 1871, they experienced great difficulty - his young son died of pneumonia and he lost much of his business to the great Chicago fire.

Two years later, in 1873, his family decided to take a break, do some traveling, make their way to Europe. Horatio got tied up with some business, so Anna and the four girls boarded a ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Four days into the voyage, their ship collided with another, and their ship immediately began to sink. Anna brought the four girls, Annie, Margaret Lee, Bessie and Tanetta, to the deck where they knelt and prayed that God would spare them if that would be his will or to make them endure whatever awaited them.

Tragically, within 12 minutes the ship sank, dooming 226 of the passengers, including the four children. A sailor, rowing a small boat over the spot where the ship went down, spotted Anna floating on a piece of the wreckage and rescued her.

Nine days later, when Anna arrived in Wales, she wired her husband, “Saved alone, what shall I do?”.

Horatio booked passage on the next available ship to go be with his grieving wife. Midway through the trip, the captain called him to the cabin and told him they were over the place where his children went down.

According to a daughter that was born later, Horatio wrote the hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul” while on this journey: “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’s an amazing story. A man, grieving deeply, is able to affirm, in praise, it is well with my soul.

How? How can he even begin to say that it’s well with his soul? How does anyone have a “well” soul in the midst of such crushing circumstances?

Mindy Caliquire says it this way, and this is our main point this morning: A soul is healthy - or well - to the extent that it maintains a strong connection and receptivity to God. Or, put another way: if we want our soul to be well, we have to be connected and open to God.

Connection and openness to God is key to the health of our soul. So, let’s dig into that a little bit.

Let’s start with this. What is our soul? What does it mean to say we have a soul? Let me first say what the soul is not.

Common misconception is that our soul is the nonphysical part of us that floats away when our bodies die. If you saw the recent Pixar movie, “Soul” (which is really a wonderful movie), it plays on this misconception - main character dies, body stays behind as this spectral soul goes to this sort of “in-between” realm before the ever after.

It’s the idea of what some have called, “ghost in the machine.” Our bodies are machines that are discarded when we die, and our “ghost”, our soul, floats up into heaven.

For those who are materialists (reject the idea of anything non-physical - only energy and matter exist), they would reject soul absolutely. In this way of thinking, as humans we are soulless beings, simply biological machines.

For some, being a biological machine means that we’re here to simply satisfy our biological urges (hungry, eat, sexual desire, we’re just like animals).

But even for those of us who believe we have a soul - we’re influenced by this. We tend to think primarily in terms of our physical health. What we tend to be most concerned about (think about type of prayer requests that are most commonly shared).

But most people know, intuitively, that we are much more than just our bodies - that there’s a complex interplay between our thoughts, feelings, bodies. That we are rational, emotional, social, spiritual and physical beings. This begins to point us in direction of what our souls are.

If we look at the language in the Bible, we begin to get a better understanding of what the soul is. In Old Testament, word that appears 700 times, and is often translated as soul, is word “nephesh.” (if you haven’t watched video I posted, please do - it’s well worth your time).

Most basic meaning of nephesh is “throat”. Which is pretty fascinating, that this is word for “soul”.

But if you think about it for a moment, throat is passageway for life. Through our throats we take in oxygen, breath of life; and we eat, drink - we’re sustained, nourished for life. Throats are essential for speaking - we speak, communicate, share our lives with each other.

Psalm 42:1-2 provides a great example of nephesh: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul, my nephesh, pants for you, my God. My nephesh thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

It’s a wonderful play on words. In the same way that a deer thirsts for water (thirst in our throats), our nephesh, our souls, thirst for God.

It’s same type of play on words that we see when Jesus offers the gift of living water to the woman at the well in John 4. The woman thinks Jesus is referring only to the physical water that sates a parched throat. But Jesus is offering deep satisfaction for the soul - the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The soul, then, would best be described as our personhood. Whole living, breathing existence, which includes our physical bodies and our spirits.

it’s not a soul contained within a body (ghost in machine), soul is our entire person, body and mind and spirit. It’s not so much that we have a soul as that we are a soul.

In Hebrew, a murderer is a nephesh killer. A kidnapper is a nephesh thief.

Dallas Willard says that when we speak of human soul, we speak of the deepest level of life and power in the human being.

Because it is the deepest level of our life and power, it forms the very foundation of who we are. As Willard says, the fundamental aspects of our lives - art, sleep, sex, ritual, family, parenting, community, health and meaningful work are all soul functions. To degree our soul diminishes, is shriveled, is unwell, these will fail and fall apart.

If our souls are unhealthy, everything in our lives is affected. Everything. Soul care is absolutely vital. We must be able to say, it is well with our souls.

Mindy Caliquire was asked to come up with two lists - what are the symptoms of a well soul and an unwell soul? If you were to check vital signs, what are you checking. She said it was easy enough to come up with the lists, a matter of minutes:

Symptoms of a soul that is not well: self-absorption, shame, apathy, toxic anger, physical fatigue, isolation, stronger temptation to sin, drivenness, feelings of desperation, panic, insecurity, callousness, a judgmental attitude, cynicism and lack of desire for God.

Signs of a healthy soul: love, joy, compassion, giving and receiving grace, generosity of spirit, peace, ability to trust, discernment, humility, creativity, vision, balance, focus, our energy for work.

Just consider those two lists for a moment. How do you want to live? What do you want your life to be like?

Which brings us back to our main point: It is well with our souls when we are connected and open to God.

It makes perfect sense when we stop to think about it. God, after all, is source of all life and power - it comes from him and him alone.

And if our souls are deepest level of life and power within us - and our souls are disconnected from God, then we are closed off from very source of life and power…our souls will shrivel. Harden.

I love the way Ruth Haley Barton puts it, the soul is the place where God is present to you.

God is not a surface level friend. There’s no superficiality with God. God meets us at our deepest place, fills us with himself, his life and power - if we’re connected to him, if we’re open to him.

His person to our person. His life to our life. God is one who is to be our soulmate.

In Song of Songs, the woman declares of her beloved, that he is one my nephesh loves. That’s exactly what we want to be able to say: God is the one my nephesh loves.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

To love God with all of our souls is to love God with the deepest level of life and power within us, whole living being that we are.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.

Over the rest of this series, we’re going to dig into the particulars of what it looks like for our souls to be well (and conversely, signs our souls are neglected, unwell). So vital.

But it begins with this, our main point: It is well with our soul when we are connected and open to God.

Challenge - Being connected and open to God

Challenge isn’t knowing symptom, it’s willingness to engage in active soul care. To do things necessary for your soul to be well. Which is, to be connected and open to God. Some things to do this week:

5 minutes daily of silence and solitude (walk through the Silence and Stillness Guidelines, part 1)

Sit down / deep breaths, simple prayer, close your eyes and offer!!, when distracted

Silence and Stillness Guidelines, part 2 - Notice the focus on Connection and Openness to God (receiving his love, letting go / surrendering, being open to hearing God speak)

Another exercise you might consider is based on the shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-8

The New International Version Chapter 6

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. y 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates

Notice that as God gives command here, it’s not just what to obey, but how to make sure that this command remains focal point of your life, that it’s deeply ingrained in your heart, so that it informs everything you do and how you do it (by loving God with soul, life and power within you).

Not just teach - but impress them upon your children. Wherever you are, talk about it - at home, walking along. First thing in morning and last thing at night. And if you’re prone to forget, put those reminders - back of your hand. On the doorframe. Which is also a way of publicly declaring it to the world (so it binding it on your forehead), this is what I’m about (so you can get called out if you’re not doing it).

It’s a guiding point for our lives, a North Star, a “Prime Directive”.

Memorize verses 4-5. Put up post it notes. Say it first thing in the morning when you get up and last thing before you go to bed. And as you say it, let it be a prayer, expressing your love for God.

Let that command be impressed upon you, so it’s on your heart. To fuel in you the desire to be connected and open to God through every aspect of your life. So your soul will be well.

Inspiration

That’s the goal, isn’t it?

Most of time, we probably manage ok in life. But sooner or later, we’ll hit those rough spots. We always do. Those are part and parcel of life. We experience losses. Things get overwhelming - everything seems to be breaking down, going wrong at one time. A sudden illness in family.

It’s these times, when we encounter our own Heartbreak Hill that the health of our souls gets revealed.

Last thing we want is to be the runner collapsed on the lawn.

How much better to be like Horatio and Anna Spafford, how they were able to face their heartbreak hill

I have no doubt that they wept and grieved and wrestled and suffered for a long, long time

To be well in soul doesn’t mean that we do not have to endure great difficulties

It means that as we do, our souls can still thrive, because deepest parts of who we are, our life and power, are connected and open to very source of life and power and peace, God himself.

How beautiful it would be to be able to affirm, no matter the circumstances of our lives. It is well. It is well with my soul.