The integration of human personality (integrity, health, wholeness,
wholesomeness, Shalom, salvation) depends on this aspect of our nature, the
highest, which is spirit.
For purposes of illustration let us say that spirit is the
“silver cord” that runs vertically through every part of us. Imagine attached to the lowest end of this
cord is the body, like a heavy stick of wood, say, a quarter hewn piece of oak firewood. From it the cord runs upward to the heart, which
can be likened to a red balloon Valentine, full of emotion for what it likes
and dislikes, loves and hates. Now, some
hearts are small, shriveled up, hard, dark, and misshapen. But we imagine the vibrant, warm, beating,
and colorful soul of a Christian, whose heart is aflame with the love of
humanity, like the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Next our cord runs through the mind, which is like a steel trap. It captures and subdues beasts of the forest in
order to subdue them to the benefit of Man.
But no, that sounds cruel. Some
dedicate their minds to that: to lie in wait, conceiving evil things for fellow
creatures, ready to snap, pounce, find fault, judge, argue, and condemn. But that is not the proper use of the
mind. A more gracious image is to see the
mind for its best imaginative qualities, like a pure mathematical equation,
suspended above the log and the flowery heart, 2+2=4 in a titanium sculpture of
Florentine script.
From there the silver cord runs skyward, up and out of sight
and to unseen reaches, into the heavenlies.
The mind has words for the spiritual realm but always speaks by analogy,
approximation, and abstraction, symbol, and similitude. Jesus taught in parables, for instance,
arguing from the known to the unknown because that is the best we can do to
describe the wondrous mysteries of God!
But spirit is the part of us that connects with God, if we have God.
The Bible tells us about the spiritual realm. It says, for instance, “We do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). We see in this passage that the spiritual
realm contains not only God, Jesus, and the angels, but also the devil and his
minions.
The question for us in spiritual formation is who has the
other end of our silver cord “up there,” so to speak?
If evil forces are tugging on our spiritual chain several
things could happen, all of them bad.
It is natural that the log of our body touches the
ground. I will boldly say that the
Buddhists are correct about the need to be “grounded.” In this also Freud is right. Mental health depends on accepting our body
and basic physical needs. As long as we
understand the difference between what we want and what we need there should be
no problem. Jesus instructs us to pray,
for instance, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That is a humble prayer for the lowly aspect
of being.
That being said, the evil forces, if they are in charge of
our lives are likely to drag us through the mud. All men suffer but there are two kinds of
suffering, noble and ignoble. The
difference between the two is the cause of suffering or the cause for which one
suffers. Jesus’ suffering and death was
noble on both counts. Many people sacrifice
their bodies in worthy pursuits, from putting food on the table through hourly
wages or contract labor, to spending long hours in study, deliberation, or management,
to military personnel giving themselves in battle to defend us. But the indignity of moral compromise is not
God’s will for the body. We are not
meant for the gutter or sewer but that is where our bodies may be found if we
give our members over to sin and self-indulgence.
Likewise, if an evil force controls the spirit, the heart
and mind may follow the body in tragic descent.
We sometimes “look for love in all the wrong places,” for example. Or we might try to “feel better” by the abuse
of substances. Our hearts may, therefore,
fall into a depression, no longer visible above ground, and our minds entertain
dirty thoughts. The carnal mind
calculates angles and devises strategies to get what the depraved body and
wayward heart “want” rather serve its proper role of finding, serving,
preserving, and representing truth. One of
the most frightening things to realize is that the mind can “go,” if we live “in
the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” Satan has practically won if he can drag our
minds under. The first recorded words of
the devil came in the form of a question, attacking Eve’s mind, “Did God say …?” The clincher for Eve in the decision to
partake of the forbidden fruit was a false conclusion, “It was desirable to
make one wise.” In other words, she
believed propositions put forth by the devil.
It is axiomatic that every feeling of the heart and every
action of the body has an idea behind it.
The carnal mind has bad ideas. The spiritual mind is full of good ideas and
beautiful truth.
But another tactic of the devil is to lift us up too high so
that we are detached, above it all, arrogant, prideful, haughty, and self-righteous. In this state no one is good enough for us so
we do not love anyone with our whole hearts.
Our minds become overly ambitious; we imagine vain things, refuse to
submit to legitimate authority, rationalize failures, and make excuses. To those too high and mighty the Bible says,
“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
But another thing might happen, which is very confusing,
both to ourselves and to those that observe our behavior. Did you ever cast a fishing line to discover
that the baited hook, cork, and sinker were all jumbled up, tangled, and out of
order? Of course, we think, no fish
would fall for that mess! In the famous words
of a brilliant politician and mini-messiah, who wants to save the planet from
its fever, “What’s up should be down and what’s down should be up!”
All these spiritual ailments, too high, too low, cyclical,
or out of sorts, may result from the influence of evil spiritual forces jerking
us around, that is, if we eliminate any medical or psychological diagnoses. For our purposes in spiritual formation we must
assume a normal and ordinary soul that wants to grow in the Lord. This is how we do it: by righteous living,
prayer, and other spiritual disciplines communicate to the spiritual world who
is your Lord and God. Let the universe
know to whom you give your spirit.
If we choose God and maintain our relationship with him this
is what happens: by the Holy Spirit our spirit, and thus our entire being, will
be lifted up from the miry clay, or lowered to the fertile soil, whatever we
need, for as Scripture says, “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will
pass away” (James 1:9-10 ESV). Likewise,
all will be put in its proper place; we are held steady and secure by God, our
Father:
For
you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The
Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. –Romans
8:15-17 ESV
For the Christian, then, spiritual does not mean being one with
the universe because the universe contains evil. It means to choose God and his holy ways,
thereby sending shock waves up our silver cord, to continue with the analogy,
causing the evil forces to take their filthy hands off us. Spiritual means to be comforted, empowered, instructed,
and ultimately led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14).
It is by the Holy Spirit that God speaks to and communes with our
spirit. The messages of the Spirit will
first come to the mind, become intelligible there. That is why Paul says, for instance, “Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”
(Colossians 3:2). Likewise, when Jesus rebuked
Peter about the way of the cross he said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a
hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on
the things of man” (Matthew 16:23 ESV).
How we think about things is the greatest variable in
spiritual formation. But the directions
we receive from above, from God’s Spirit through our spirit, in guidance and
direction, will be confirmed by the whole of our being because spirit runs
through and affects every aspect of our personality.
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