What is the soul?

"In the Hebrew language, soul is a metaphor, nephesh, the word for neck. The neck contains the narrow passage through which air passes, from mouth to lungs and back out again in speech - breath, spirit, and God-breathed life. The term 'soul' works like a magnet, pulling all the pieces of our lives into a unity, a totality."

• Eugene Peterson

Let's compare the soul with the self.

• the self is smaller than the soul
• we think in terms of "self" in our culture
• 📚: Soul People
• the self can become a small, fragile concept about how we understand humans

1. The self is curated while the soul was created

The self is concerned with hairdos, resumes, etc.
We are curating ourselves.

Genesis 2:7 NLT
[7] Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

The soul gives value to who I am, not because I assigned it to myself, but because the breath of life from God has been breathed into humankind. My value comes from something greater than I.

2. The self is fractured while the soul is whole

We have all different versions of our "selves". Home self, work self, online self, etc.

We begin to view ourselves like this:

What we think about and what we say are not independent. We are complete souls. Complete beings.

The Bible proclaims the profound value and dignity of the material realm-including the human body-as the handiwork of a loving God. That's why biblical morality places great emphasis on the fact of human embodiment. Respect for the person is inseparable from respect for the body. God could have chosen to make us like the angels-spirits without bodies. He could have created a spiritual realm for us to float around in. Instead, he created us with material bodies and a material universe to live in.

• Nancy Percy

Jesus wants to heal and restore all of you, not just pieces and parts, because it all goes together.

3. The self goes solo while the soul stays settled

Often, if people or a community isn't working for us, we move on.

4. The self wants stimulated, the soul needs stilled

What does it mean to be human? We freak out about politics, AI, etc. but we were meant for more than that.

We return to the presence of God through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Questions

What is feeding your soul?

Are the quick dopamine hits you chase shaping your soul?
What are things in place that feed your soul?
Are we cultivating beauty? Are we beholding God's creation so that we can return in worship to him?

What needs removed or eliminated?

We have cluttered souls.
We say we are too busy to look into our souls.

How might you quiet and still your soul this week?

When was the last time you sat in silence for 15 minutes? Still for the Lord.

Is your soul lost?

Does it long to return to the one who created you?
Are you tired of focusing on yourself constantly?