Spiritual Pathways || Phase 1 | Lesson Twelve

As we've been talking about God's design for our spirit, for our minds, our bodies, our relationships, we're going to wrap up by talking about God's design for our soul. And when you think of your soul, it's just a collection of all of those other parts. It's easy to let any one of those parts speak into our identity or take on messages about ourself that are less than positive or less than true, simply because we're human, right? But especially if we've had an unpleasant relationship or we struggle with some sort of mental health or maybe our bodies are failing us in some way, it's easy to let ourselves be defined by that broken relationship or that depressive episode or that bad hip, whatever it may be. I often say that I'm my own worst enemy because I let myself dwell on thoughts that I think about myself or I entertain messages I say to myself that are not true. The only thing that is true is what we've talked about many times, that we were created in the image of God on purpose for a purpose and he determines our identity. God cares about way more than our behaviors. And as I think through that, I was remembering a time in fourth grade, I got a big fat red F on a history test. And out of that experience, I started to tell myself, I'm just not good at history. I'm always going to be a bad history student. History is always going to be a struggle for me. And to be honest with you, the rest of my schooling career, history was a struggle for me. But what I have learned recently, we've talked about learning styles and how we're wired. I just didn't learn it the way I needed to learn it. I needed to be able to interact and have a conversation and see pictures of places in history we were learning about or see the people we were studying about in history in order for me to be able to understand that information. But for so long, I let myself carry that message of I'm a terrible history student that I didn't give myself a chance to step into a different sort of message. So as we continue with wrapping up this soul, like who we are, who God designed us to be, we just want you to remember that God cares about more than our behaviors and he has good things for you. You know, getting high for me was always about chasing this mythical line. Like I just I wanted to get to this place of perfection of where I could just feel completely almost numb or disconnected or at ease with no matter what was going on around me. And it was all I was always chasing that line that that that that like I would be I would feel like, OK, I'm almost there just a little bit more like I don't want to get too much. I don't I don't want to black out. I don't want to lose control of myself. But I just want to get to this this mythical line that I had like that. I'm almost there. Just a little bit more is going to help or oh, man, I'm right there right now. I need to be a little bit more because this is going to go away. Like it was this fundamental core belief that I had to put something in me to change the way I felt before I could get to a place where I could just feel OK with life, where I could feel all right with just whatever was going on. I had to put something in me to get there. And what I come to know about that now is really what I was looking for was peace. I was looking for a way to be at rest, at peace with myself and at peace with the world around me. And as we're finishing up this first this first level or this first this first part of our pathway of God is interested in more than just your behaviors that he knit us together in our mother's womb, that this is God's design for us. We've looked at all these different things.

And today we're going to look at the soul. And if you look, remember your diagram from the workbook, the soul is the kind of thing that separates all those are the kind of kind of thing that circles or encompasses all the things. And that's why it's so cool to break down and understand the difference between what is the difference between the spirit and the soul? Because this we don't really even know a lot of times that's not discussed or at least it wasn't for me when I was going up or any kind of context around church. I thought the spirit was like what happened when you die, that it floats up and the soul was like kind of the same thing. And but man, this is what's so powerful to understand the breakdown of these things and how the soul is a thing that kind of wraps around all of those. And the reason it's powerful is because it's found in a verse in Matthew, chapter 11. And this is Jesus talking in Matthew, chapter 11, verse 39. And when he lays out, that's why when he lays this out is why it's so cool when you understand the soul kind of wraps up all of. those things. It says, verse 29, Matthew 11, 29, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. You will find rest for your souls. What I was always searching for, what I was always looking for, was that that place of rest or peace or just a calmness from the noise that stayed in my mind. I was always looking for that line. And so man, knowing that God created all of our bodies and the soul is kind of all of those things, and that he says to take my yoke upon me and you will find rest for your souls. And so understanding this, this is the picture of what we get a chance to live in recovery. That because I've worked the steps and I've made peace with the relationships that are around me, that I've made amends for the behaviors and the choices that I made, that I'm trying to honor and bring my body in line, that I bring my heart and my soul and all these, I bring all these things into line with how God made them to be, that I can experience real rest, that I can be at peace. And this is something every time I share my story that I struggle with because it feels like no matter what words that I use to describe that I've found in this journey of recovery that I'm in right now, it feels like every word I use just doesn't

seem to kind of, it doesn't seem to paint the picture for what's really taking place. All I know is when I talk to my friends, my friend Robbie says, Matt, if I'd known I could have felt this good, I'd have got sober a long time ago. And the only thing I know to describe it is what Jesus is saying that's available to us. And he says he has a yoke to take his yoke upon you, and that's a, that's an agricultural term of something that was put on an animal to help use in farm work. So there's going to be work to do for us. Like there's things for me to do. I don't stand there and demand for God to heal me. Some of you come from a faith context where you show up and you demand God to heal you, and I would challenge that in saying that if you're demanding God to heal you, that's not faith, that's entitlement. There's sometimes work to be done. There's stories in scripture where Jesus healed people instantly, but there's also stories in scripture where Jesus told the ten lepers go to the priest, and the scripture says on their way as they were walking to the priest they were healed. There was a man who was blind that Jesus had to put the mud on and said now go wash in the pool, and it was as he was washing on his way, as he was taking actions, he was healed. So there's work for me and you to do. There's things that we can do, and that work for me is that I'm trying to bring all these things, all the pieces of me that God made into alignment with the one, with his will and what his want is. And when all those things come together in line, man, I can experience rest and peace for my soul, because my soul is all of those things. Man, we're so grateful that you have completed, after this this lesson, you completed phase one of our spiritual pathway. We want to connect you to Jesus as a part of your long-term recovery, and I want you to know more than anything that God is

interested in more than just your behaviors, that healing is not a straight line. And I have so much admiration for the courage of people who come to treatment, maybe even complete a treatment program, but then when they get out, something happens, they stumble, they fall, and they relapse. For the ones that have the courage to come back, and they don't let that shame drive them, because I believe shame is killing a lot more people than drugs are. Shame isolates us and hides us. And you've completed phase one of this spiritual pathway with us. Man, take some excitement in that. Take some, take some stock of what God has helped you learn, or maybe even this, because this has been a lot of my recovery. It's not that I've learned things, but I've had to unlearn a lot of things. You finished phase one with us, and we cannot wait to start phase two with you, where we unpack and understand kind of what is the Bible, and how can my story and all that I've been through, how can my story fit in God's story? We're so glad you're with us. Thank you.