Mark 8:36-37 (NLT) “And what does it benefit you if you gain the whole world… but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
– Jesus
This tells us something very interesting – that it is possible to lose your soul. Did you know that a soul could be lost? That is a very sad thing. And no worldly thing can bring it back again. Not a car, not a watch, not a party, not bottles and models, not accolades or affirmations. No worldly thing can bring it back again.
I would submit that…
Bitterness, unforgivingness and hatred can actually kill ones soul. Growing old and crusty, holding grudges, complaining about this and that. We’ve all seen people like this. Saying oh the government or oh the gay agenda or oh the immigrants. Complaining. But forgiveness and love can let your soul breath again and actually strengthen your soul.
Repressing the truth can kill your soul. If you hear someone lying or doing something wrong but do nothing about it, it slowly kills your soul. Telling the truth strengthens your soul.
Repressing yourself, not being yourself, can kill your soul. I love to run. It is one of the things that God created me to do. I have had countless experiences running in the mountains of places like Colorado or Wyoming in the early mornings, when the mountains are misty and the animals are waking up and you can hear the sounds of the forest and there is no one else around. Then I feel so close to God that I swear I could reach out and touch his face. If I stopped doing that I would stop being me. That strengthens my soul. Like the famous Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell said “God made me fast. And when I run I feel his pleasure. When a painter paints or a singer sings I believe that God smiles upon that. He takes pleasure in that and says Yes! And that builds up your soul.
One of my favorite authors was a man named Viktor Frankl and he was a Jewish psychiatrist who lived through the holocaust and he said this “Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; However, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Israel on his lips.”
In this quote we see in the German soldiers an example of someone who’s body is alive but who’s soul is dead. And in the men and women who entered those gas chambers with faith and dignity we see an example of someone who’s body is dying but whose soul is thriving.
I want to encourage all of us to consider the state of our souls. Are our souls healthy? Are our souls being strengthened daily? Because if we have our souls. Then nothing else matters. Don’t lose your soul.
-by Parker Ferrell. For more about Parker, click here!
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