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October 18, 2004
Separation of Body and Soul
The heading of this blog is “The Daily Spirit-Human." In the MOTIVATION LIST I talked about one of the reasons I used the word “Daily” in the title of the blog. It was to motivate me to write every day. It was setting an ambitious goal to help me to be creative every day. Another reason for the word daily is a reminder that we are living in this life as human beings and are also spiritual every day of our lives. Though we don’t always think of ourselves as spiritual, we are all trying to define who we are and what our purpose is. We look for meaning to our lives and that’s a very spiritual quest. Many people discover a deeper and more meaningful life. Many don’t.
Some people get the idea that we cannot walk in both worlds at once. Jesus even said that we cannot serve two masters (God and money). And he taught us to live “in this world, but not of this world.” Since we cannot separate our spirit from our body and we have to live in this world, we can try to live in a spiritually fulfilling way. We can be living our daily lives spiritually. That encompasses everything we do, think and say. It’s not just being good, but also finding (and giving) meaning, purpose and joy in life. Since we cannot separate our bodies and souls, we have to find a balance in life, nurturing our bodies and caring for them so they carry us through this lifetime.
That’s why I quit smoking many years ago. It was more of a spiritual release from bondage to something that was killing me. I decided that if I put toxins into the body that my spirit carries through this life, I am not valuing the awesome gift of life I have, I am not caring for my body, and I am disrespecting God and myself. I know that when I smoked I had an attitude like, “screw it, I only live once.” and “It’s my body, I can do with it what I want.” I realized that both of these statements were absolutely true. But Is that what I really wanted? Spiritually no. I wanted freedom, peace and happiness. Smoking only caused more suffering for short term gains in a feeling.
That is why I decided I needed to exercise more. It was more of a spiritual thing than it was a desire to be buff or anything like that. I could care less about appearances, but I do care about the responsibility I have to make sure my body does what it’s intended to do: Take me through this life and help me live a happy, fulfilled life. I don’t want to short change my experience or degrade it. When it’s the right time to go, I’ll go.
Giving to others is a spiritual thing. I make it a part of my life. I see compassion and charity as occupations of the spirit. I cannot separate that from my daily life. I am a daily Spirit-Human.
Today I want to show an example of someone living their life in a spiritual manner. It’s not talking about being holy or sanctified or saved. It’s being a human being that is in the process of giving the soul some good work to do.
I didn’t ride my bike to work this morning, and haven’t for almost a week because of the weather, bad timing and other reasons. This morning was really cold and I felt like I wasn’t equipped for it. When I talked to my friend Dan at work (A.K.A. Lance Armstrong) He was wondering what happened to me. I must have sounded kind of forlorn or something, because later in the day, he came over to my desk and told me that it was warmer out now and that he’d love to ride with me. He offered to ride his bike to my house and meet me there so we could go for a ride together. I was thrilled at the idea. So, I rode the bus home, changed and then Dan showed up on his bike as promised. I ended up riding 24 miles with him and it felt great! I was riding much faster than usual and he laughed and said I must have a lot of pent-up energy. But it was not just the long rest, my spirit was feeling jubilant because of the way Dan picked me up and encouraged me and went the extra few miles out of his way to ride with me. He made an option that I didn’t have before since my bike was at home.
There are millions of things we can do in this world, and most of it is simply a way to occupy our time here. We get to decide what to do with it, and how best to live our lives. As I choose how to do that, I can never forget that I am a daily Spirit-Human. Inseparable body and soul until it’s my time to move on.
Posted by carl1236 at October 18, 2004 11:57 PM