What Does it Profit to Gain the Whole World and Lose your Soul?

February 25, 2018

In her book; Present Over Perfect, Shauna Niequist writes, “What kills a soul? Exhaustion, secret keeping, image management. And what brings back a soul from the dead? Honesty, connection and grace.”

My soul feels a little lost lately. I am a bit exhausted. I have not been keeping secrets, but I am ever ridding myself of image management. This blog is a hashing out of my mind onto virtual paper.

Honesty: Deep calls out to deep. I live to feel the waterfalls, breakers, and waves of God roll over me. I seek and need that revelation and encouragement to live out this day. If I strive, it is to know who I am in Christ. It is a longing to understand and believe my identity in Him. My value and worth are not in what I own, but in who owns me. The world screams at me that I am foolish and lazy, that I am independent and capable of making my own decisions, to create my own success. Sometimes I lend an ear to that. Too many times I align myself with the voice that says I have failed, and that I am worthless.

Connection: Out of this struggle and and dependence on God, I realize that I am just the container. A cup. A vessel. A receptacle. I hold something of greatness. I am great because of the greatness I hold. I am amazing because I am a unique container, created by a potter in which no two are a like. I am connected to the One who knows all things, who is all things, who owns all things. I reach out to others, I connect, I engage, they drink, and I drink. I apprehend the living water that infuses with my cup to create one unique soul that is like no other and was not meant to be.

Grace: I cannot fail because it is not I that lives any longer, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live, I choose not to live for myself, as if there were such a thing.  It is Christ in me the Hope of glory. Christ being extended to others with the love and mercy that has been poured into me.

There… my mind is starting to be renewed, and set right. The world is starting now to dissipate, and my soul is being nourished and fattened.