"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." C.S. Lewis
I came across this quote a couple months ago and have been mulling it over since. It's had a most profound effect on my perspective and I've become engaged in this "Outside-In Inside-Out" awareness.
Outside In. I always thought of myself as this body . . . then I began to love Jesus . . . and God made this soul come alive inside me. Body, then soul. I've spent much of my time entertaining myself . . . my physical self . . . reacting to the physical world around me in a very . . . well . . . human way. Naturally. I wake up, I eat, I need coffee, I like music to start my day . . . I'm cold . . . I'm hot . . . "ohhhhhh, look at that! I want one." It's as if we view and order our existence focused on the physicality of our world . . . our body and physical comforts are our primary source of direction. And occasionally, if we're not too tired, we may engage the soul inside us. We think and act from the outside in and we wonder why we're still desperately empty.
Inside Out. I've had it all twisted up . . . never thinking much about finite and infinite when it came to body and soul. God assembled us from the beginning with two distinct parts. From day one we have a temporal physical body that will indeed someday fail us all. And He also imparted us with an eternal spiritual soul . . . the part of us that no matter what we do will live on . . . somewhere. Instilled inside of each of us is an eternal beacon . . . a homing device if you will . . . that points us towards Christ if we're in tune with it. What I've found is the more I think about and view the world from the inside out . . . using my soul as my primary filter . . . the more things begin to appear different, and differently. Naturally we have "outside in" needs . . . needs to sustain ourselves physically . . . but we also have very real, very important, spiritual needs. We do need to feed our souls in order to grow . . . our souls do need to rest in a weary world . . . our eternal voices do need to sing and cry out in praise to our Creator. It's the push-pull between our dualities that seems to create this daily tug of war . . . this battle for our attention and affection.
Think about it. Think about it as you go through your routines and rituals. What you'll begin to realize is that no matter what you buy . . . no matter how you adorn yourself . . . or what you eat, drink, watch, listen to or wrap yourself in . . . you will never be fully satisfied if it's "outside in". Our bodies are temporary . . . they are here, then gone, just like everything else we see and touch.
Truthfully, we may never be fully satisfied until we understand and accept our finite physicality and wholly embrace and focus on our infinite spirituality.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2 ESV)


