Portrait of a Soul

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 39: Portrait of a Soul

Opening Thought: The trouble of having a soul is accountability. I think materialistic atheism is attractive to so many because there are no consequences. Not to say that every material atheist is a James Bond villain or something so diabolical, rather, if you do not believe there are consequences, all you must do is navigate through life with enough caution that you do not rustle too many feathers, and the world’s your oyster. Like a passive aggressive Hobbesian approach to living. If you have a soul, if a part of you transcends to a realm beyond self-motivation and hedonism, we must consider if the soul can be tarnished, and if it can what happens to the tarnished soul? When I was in high school, I met only one other kid who seemed to have a proficient enough basis in Christianity that I could have a genuine theological debate with. That day we were talking about whether or not the concept of purgatory was viable. Some peers of ours overheard our conversation and joined in. I was struck by the one girl comment about the idea of hell and purgatory, she said, ‘I never liked the idea of hell, so I don’t believe in it.’ I had never considered that line of reasoning before in my life, I was seventeen at the time of this conversation and it had never struck me that preference could be a logical defense for whether something could be argued to exist. I don’t like the idea of illness, but I would never claim that made an argument for illness' non-existence, nor would I continue living as if illness didn’t exist, even if I didn’t want to invest the time in debating illness’ existence.

I can’t remember my response to her, but it was likely along these lines, just because you do like something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist – so if something as serious as God, the human soul, sin, righteousness, heaven and/or hell could exist you should at least show the respect those concept deserve and consider them as possibilities, heck, show yourself the respect you deserve to consider them possibilities because they just might be real, and then what?

The devotional begins with: Isaiah 1:18-20

Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Second Thought: There is a video that circulates evangelical Christian social media occasionally that shows a string, the first few inches of the string are noted to be the full span of a human life, and the rest of the string which stretches forever is the eternal afterlife. The video, if memory serves, emphasizes how people will serve the short timeframe of human life (the first few inches), at the expense of their eternal afterlife (the rest of the string which stretches forever). A part of what it means to be human is to exist over time, not only to we exist today, but we existed in the past and in will continue to exist into the future. Our past tells us that life is a challenge, and because we know we will exist in the future we sometimes need to make sacrifices today to live out better in the future. There is an old fable of the ant and the grasshopper, where the ant works all year saving food for the harshness of winter, while the grasshopper just lives frivolously. The ant is living beyond the present. The Christian story has a calling that says what you prepare for on earth will dictate your life beyond death. But in the Christian story, Christ has stores in heaven for those to access who come to the Father through Christ. You must give up the frivolity of today to serve the tomorrow of the kingdom of God, what you must do is come to Him in humility, come to Him and admit you have lived as the grasshopper and move towards living for the spiritual life, and the spiritual life of all those around you. The Sin that turns the soul red, is the same sin, if not cleaned by the mercy of God, can make you so focused on the worldly things, that you could reject the heavenly things.     

Continual Work: If you were to look at your soul, do you think it would be red or white? Be honest, because remember Christ said, “only God is good”.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I struggle with sin just like everyone, I find my frustration moves me to anger. When I was younger my frustration would manifest while driving, someone cut me off, out came the cuss words and other gestures of frustration. I find now that I am older my energy calmer, but my frustration can still move me towards other negative outlets. One day at a time I pray and ask for Christ’s grace and patience with me, and the strength to continue to work to a brighter future. It’s working well, haven’t flipped someone the bird in a number of years.

Prayer for your day: God, we thank You for revealing to us Your gift of Christ, who coached us to not fear what could harm the body, but what could harm the soul. We need to be healed by Your mercy and call to the good works of faith. In Christ name, Amen.

Artistic Close: When my father use to teach me martial arts as a child, I remember occasionally the theatrical uses of the word “grasshopper” was used to mark someone as new to martial arts. The thing about being a disciple to Christ, is that it takes discipline to move from a novice to and master, and it takes much practice to move from only worrying about the material to caring for the spirit. Let your soul grow too.

 

Grasshopper (1918) by Julie de Graag (1877-1924). Original from The Rijksmuseum. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.