In order to move in discipleship, in order to care for your soul, you have to know what a soul even is. Now, I’m not saying people have not moved forward in discipleship for many years without knowing what a soul is. They have. But if we claim to have souls, and souls that need saving, wouldn’t it be a good idea to start right there at the beginning with this curious question? What is a soul?
What is a soul? What even does it look like? Where does it live? and how can I take care of my soul? These questions and more are the types of things I was asking myself when I started studying the gospel in great depth. This understanding of the soul was going to affect my understanding of the gospel, so I wanted to understand this hidden layer underneath the fleshy bits I saw in the mirror.
What I found out about the soul surprised me. For simplicity’s sake, the soul is the whole of who you are. It is what makes you intrinsically you.
Listen to this definition from Soul Keeping,
Your soul is what integrates your will (your intentions), your mind (your thoughts and feelings, your values and conscience), and your body (your face, body language, and actions) into a single life. A soul is healthy — well-ordered — when there is harmony between these three entities and God’s intent for all creation. When you are connected with God and other people in life, you have a healthy soul.
I always had it in my mind that my soul was invisible, unseen. While this is partly true, I cannot see my thoughts or my intent when I look in the mirror, but I can see my face. I can see my body as I type this message. When I look in the mirror, there is a sense that I see my soul. I see on the outside who I am on the inside.
The soul is invisible in that it is the framework which holds your body, your mind, thoughts, desires, heart, intentions, together. It would do us well to listen to the soul because it is always working to let us know when one area is out of alignment with another.
Another definition found is Soul Keeping is this,
[The soul] is the deepest part of you, and it is the whole person. This is so true that the word soul, in both the Old and New Testaments and elsewhere in the ancient world, is often simply a synonym for the person.
Imagine hearing, “She was a dear soul.” Perhaps you’ve said similiarly without thinking about it. What the person meant was, “She was a dear person.” Her whole self, everything about her, was dear.
You are a Soul.
“You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe.” – Dallas Willard
You are not a accident. You are intentional. Your body. Your mind. Your personality. Your desires. Your hopes.
You are, whether you’ve decided to accept Christ into your life or not, a valued treasure to the God who created You. We are not, at this point, asking whether there is a Higher Power, we are simply accepting that there is one.
He is the Creator of every soul.
A soul that lives apart from God is a soul that is not well-ordered or integrated. A soul functions best when it allows God an all access pass. That is why choosing to walk with Him is essential to soul care.
But the interesting thing about all this is there is so much to learn about our bodies, our thoughts, our feelings, and our choices. All because we asked, “What is a soul?”
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What a great idea–to lead us into considering our soul. This is important because, as you point out at the end, there’s so much to learn about our bodies, thoughts, feelings, and choices. I think your post calls all (no matter where we are in our spiritual walk) to consider our internal world and how impacts our external life. Love your site!