What Is the Soul and Why It Matters (eBook)

Chapter 1:
Overview of the Soul

And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being {soul}.1

The soul was created by God to be housed in every human being. King David in the Book of Psalms said, You fashioned me in my mother’s womb.2 Everyone possesses a soul that has been ordained by God and is placed within each person as a part of that person’s being. It is always active, aware, filters and senses our conscious and subconscious existence. This protective creation always prepares us for the future, lives in the now and filters the past. The protective function of the soul is perhaps the most important of all the functions it performs, because it guards the spirit within us–fashioned by God and placed in us when He made us a complete person– soul and spirit. If you can imagine that the soul is a circle, a protective circle, with a spirit inside of that circle, you will have a mental picture of this amazing accessory of our humanness. Why does the spirit need to be protected? It is the energy cell for our lives. Although this book is not primarily about the spirit within all of us, that exquisite feature cannot be ignored. Suffice it now to say the spirit needs a house—a well-maintained house in order to do that which God intended it to do. God needed a way to communicate to us directly, in order that we fulfill the path He set for us to follow in this worldly journey all of us are taking. The spirit within the soul’s casement is a necessary part of our ability to achieve our designed destiny.

There are moments when we stop the whirlwind of living and moving from one moment to the next; when we, suddenly, feel the questions: What is it all about? What is this daily process of eating, working, and sleeping...Are we just on this earth to live through our days so that when the time comes, we can die? or, is there a higher meaning to living that we are missing, because of the everyday stresses of life that pull at us and give us no time to reflect? Do other people feel as we do that there has to be more? Why are there so many questions and very few answers? We feel these questions and when we feel them, this questing is from our souls. Because very few people even think about their souls daily, the above questions are quickly forgotten as another of the day’s stressors takes control of our conscious minds, and these deeper thoughts quickly fade away. After all, focusing on these soul-seeking questions will not pay the bills; nor will they help us to do what is expected of us in our jobs.

These musings stimulate the inner feelings that everyone experiences that are rarely discussed. These subjects are not a part of everyday conversation, because there are no easy answers to subjects of depth. Yet, it is the deep subjects that touch our souls. The importance of the above questions travel to the inner regions of our soul. When the soul is touched, our real self is awakened. In everyday conversation, most of us do not present our reality to others because we cannot put into words our inner thought life. We only feel more complex musings on occasion. We are not taught about our souls and how important it is to know who we are and what we feel and where we are going and why we are going there. Sometimes we present images to hide a deep pain – as Paul Lawrence Dunbar wrote in We Wear the Mask3.

Finding our authenticity

“Plastic” is a term that was used in the 70’s to describe people who were insincere…a person who presented a certain image that was contrary to fact. When one is in touch with the soul, there is no image, and it is the soul we are seeking in ourselves and in others when we say, “Come on, be real.” It is the soul that we feel in people when we make the comment, “He is straight up” or “She is really centered.” In the 70’s, we would say that the person was really

“together”. When we start to view people as souls, instead of all the other labels we give them to categorize them; we then begin to view the world differently. To Tell the Truth, a television show of the 50’s through the 90’s, asked the question at the end of the segment where three people claimed to be the same person – “Will the real John Doe please stand up.” Eminem used this same idea of “Please stand up,” when he took on the persona of “Slim Shady”. In finding our souls, we have to ask ourselves the same question. The soul contains the real “us “– within us, but it is not easily recognizable.

The exception is in certain instances that allow for the reality of who we are to emerge.

To give an example of a daring expression of the soul emerging, my brother saved a young girl’s life when he saw that she had fallen into a river by a levee wall of about 10 feet, and her fall had happened so quickly that it had not been seen by anyone but a few people. His soul moved him and he rallied some men to help. There wasn’t time to find a rope, so he, held by the feet, was lowered down the levee wall to grasp her hands and pull her to safety. This may seem like an obvious example to most of us, but some people, whose souls were blocked, would not want to get involved. The attitude would be, “Let someone else do it.” The person, with an open, healthy soul gets involved.

Another example of a healthy soul is the individual who never knows a stranger. We have all known people who fit this description. They can talk to anyone at any time, and they are an absolute joy to watch and to know. The warmth they radiate from within reaches out to all the people they meet. These individuals nourish our souls and cause us to yearn for that type of openness. Many refer to this as being extroverted, but it is the healthy soul at work, and it is within all of us to never know a stranger.

My Uncle Jim was a general practitioner of medicine in his working lifetime. He was so dynamic because he loved people and walked the extra mile to make them feel better. He had a passion for what he did and was beloved by everyone who knew him. Our souls desire this type of freedom, and beautiful moments do exist when the soul is expressed; however, the moments are not consistent. We don’t normally exercise our souls in this way. Just as a fine athlete works and exercises to condition the body, each individual has to also work and exercise awareness to allow the soul to emerge and move us. Most of the time we are not even aware when our souls are functioning. We have to truly get to know our souls.

Sensitivity

To know the soul is to feel and the process of feeling comes from within us. We can’t take a picture of our feelings, but we all know that we do feel and that we do have the ability to feel. People who are more sensitive than others are just more attuned to their souls. In our anxiety, we teach ourselves not to openly express our feelings. Even though we have traveled far in doing away with some of the stereotypes, crying, for whatever reason, is still frowned upon as weak, if one is a man, and silly, if one is a woman. In a society that frowns on crying, a barrier is formed on one technique that the soul uses to maintain its health. The free flow of feelings originates from the soul. When feelings are blocked starting in childhood, the soul loses an important function. A blocked soul creates a sad situation for the individual, who suffers from this condition.

The negativity factor

A blocked soul goes through life without feeling, and lives only half a life – the better part locked deep within the individual. This is usually the result of a very strict parenting structure in the home. This person never wears a smile unless there is something materially to be gained by smiling. Usually, they will present a negative reaction to any topic of conversation. An example would be someone who can always tell you why something will not work as opposed to encouraging – always giving the drawbacks of a plan or idea, as opposed to entertaining the goodness or worthiness of the endeavor. If you happen to have to talk to them on the phone, they really have nothing to say and on occasion will withhold information that would be very helpful. All of us have experienced this. It isn’t hard to determine if you are around a blocked soul. Just look in the eyes.

Symptoms of the unhealthy soul

It is true that the eyes are the windows of the soul, and one can tell by looking into the eyes of a listener whether or not that person has a blocked soul. First of all, upon talking to a person whose soul is blocked; one notices that this listener will not make direct eye contact. Have you ever talked to someone like this? Sure you have and the whole time you are talking to them, you are wondering why they won’t look at you. This lack of eye contact can be interpreted as a lack of respect for the speaker; a sign of boredom; a maneuver to push your buttons (your children master this very well and adults, having been children once, also remember using this ploy.) or it is a need to hide. When the soul is not so well, the eyes are like window panes that have not been washed for a while. It is a form of physical defensiveness against revealing how badly one really feels.

Secondly, the speaker can tell the degree of pain in the blocked soul by looking to see whether or not the eyes of the soul dart in all directions during the course of the conversation. Just as a person treads water to stay afloat and the arms...