GodReflection: Is It Well With My Soul?

The Holy Spirit who resides in my soul knows pain to a far greater degree than I have or will experience. The Holy was deeply pained from rejection by His creation and from the pain felt from crucifixion and the cry of agony birthed by the Son when separated from Father to carry the sins of all humankind to Hell where God was not. It is this Holy who lives with me in my soul.

To live in a fallen world is to experience pain. There are times my soul doesn’t feel well. There are times my soul hurts so badly it seems as if there is no immediate fix. No X-Ray, MRI or CT Scan can image it to identify pain. There are no pills or injections for purchase to relieve soul pain.

My best effort to identify a word to describe soul pain is the word loss. Just over a decade ago our extended family walked with my mother through the devastation of Alzheimer’s Disease. By the time death arrived her memory was long lost and her body had lost most of its recognizable traits. I join others in their description of this affliction as the loss of self.

Like Alzheimer’s, I wonder if loss of self may be the best description of soul pain? Isn’t that what transpires when I feel pain? My soul is lacerated by death because someone was lost to my earthly presence. Death causes pain (loss) inside my soul.

Betrayal pains my soul through the loss of a friendship, relationship or trust. Betrayal robs from self. It is loss that results in soul pain.

Likewise, doesn’t that same thing happen to my soul when I sin? Sin causes the loss of self-identity—that part of God who makes me a better me. Perhaps a better way to express it is sin robs from the God identity that resides in my soul. It is the God of my deepest DNA that was passed on to me at birth. As I trek through life each sin steels more of Gods identity from me. I cannot imagine a greater loss.

All souls are wounded. All souls feel pain. To fix it is beyond the ingenuity of every human. The fix had to come from its creator. Only the Holy could implement the solution.

Then, at just the right time (Romans 5:6) Holy God sent the Great Physician to bring an end to soul pain. It was he who took up our pain (Isaiah 53:4). As Jesus walked the earth he sought out those with pain and they were healed. It was a preview of what would be made possible by the cross, the grave, the resurrection and the ascension.

The living Jesus revealed an eternal soul to be housed in a resurrected body with painless scars. For forty additional days he appeared to the disciples and further clarified the soul implications of what had happen and what could be expected to take place by the power of the risen Christ.

A half century later he appeared once again to John his much-loved apostle. As their encounter closes so closes the pages of Scripture. The Master paints rich shades of confident hope for our soul’s future in the next reality. Soul pain will be extinct.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).

I would love to hear from you. Is this a valid way to think about soul pain? What am I missing?

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells

A GodReflection: Soul Pain

Gary@Godreflection.org 

www.GodReflection.org

www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com