outwardly healthy
When we consider, or set goals for, getting “healthy” we’re really talking about becoming outwardly healthy. When we resolve to eat better, exercise more, or deal with destructive habits relative to our “health,” we’re really just focusing on the recognizable outward self. Our suggestion of your need for Total Rehab doesn’t concern itself with those things. Our suggestion focused inward to the four essential parts which make up the whole you … your heart (the seat of your true self that we considered last week), your soul (the target this week), your mind, and your strength. We’re not concerned about a trim waistline or chiseled chin. We’re concerned for your kardia and your psuché.
with all your psuché
So, this our word for this week … psuché (pronounced, soo • chay). It’s the Greek word in Mark 12:30 where Jesus refers to your soul…
Love the Lord your God with all your kardia and with all your psuché
Psuché means “breath” or “life,” or maybe “breath of life.” It simply means … your whole existence. When Jesus says, love God with all your psuché, He’s saying to love God with your very life, your very existence. In every breath, love God. With every breath, love God. Jesus uses that word again in John 12:25:
Anyone who loves their psuché will lose it, while anyone who hates their psuché in this world will keep it for eternal life.
This all sounds pretty simple, but it’s profoundly not. Of course you’re going to watch the video, and at around the 7:45 mark, Grant gives a great illustration of how it’s profoundly not simple. He illustrates how we are so much like the monkey who won’t let go of what’s in the jar. We become so attached or dependent on things in this life, that we lose any opportunity for the life that’s eternal. We value something(s) or someone(s) here, above anything else … and that means God.
To love God with all your psuché means letting go of everything and everyone here and loving Him above all else — like none of that other stuff matters.
following Jesus
Jesus speaks of the tennis balls in the jars (you really need to watch the video) as He is walking along and multiple people offer to follow Him:
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Luke 9:57-58
Jesus says, if comfort is one of those tennis balls in the jar, you’re going to need to let go of it if you want to follow me.
He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:59-62
Jesus says, if family is one of those tennis balls in the jar, you’re going to need to let go of them if you want to follow me.
God wants it all. Every bit of your time and attention, every ounce of the sweat of your brow, every measure of your passion and devotion … God wants it all. He will give back to you in far greater measure, but He wants all of you — all of your psuché.
So … you want to be really healthy? Stop living for yourself, and live for God.
