The Blues Brothers sang of soul in the R & B classic “I’m a Soul Man.” If you Google the word “soul” lots of stuff comes up. Theologians and philosophers have contemplated the nature and definition of soul for thousands of years. Think about it. You use the word soul all of the time. You have a sense of what you mean when you use it but what does it really mean? Perhaps there is no word and concept so widely used, yet so vaguely defined.

The word psyche means soul. Therefore, the word psychology means the study of the soul. I’m a clinical psychologist. By definition then I am one who studies the soul. (more…)

In all things give thanks. Those with faith that there is a creative force in the universe are familiar with this admonition. Thankfulness is central to our spiritual life. But how can we be grateful for things we don’t like? Does being grateful in all things mean even being grateful for “bad things?”

Gratitude hits at the very heart of spiritual formation. The only way to be grateful “in all things” is to appreciate that all things, whether we like them or not, are “good things” authored in our best interest by our Heavenly Father.

A loving earthly father would not give his children “bad things?” But many of the things an earthly father has to do for his kids are things that his kids don’t like and wouldn’t choose. Kids never want to be poked by a needle. Yet every loving and responsible parent recognizes that vaccinating their child is in the child’s best interest even if it’s not to their child wants. How much more our Divine Father would only give us what was best.

The gratitude problem is a matter of us confusing judgment with taste. We most certainly have God given tastes that include many aspects of life that we don’t like and don’t want. But distaste should not be confused with judgment.

Distaste does not mean that these things are “bad.” Undesirable indeed, unpleasant most certainly but not “bad.” When we assume our tastes warrant judgment we are then assuming a function, judgment, reserved for only All-in-allness. We are worshipping an idol – ourselves. With judgment and self-worship gratitude fades, anguish ensues and life is even more strife-laden. Life becomes a living hell.

In all things give thanks means just that -in all things. All is in our best interest whether we like it or not. All is a gift and it’s the best gift we could ever have. It’s all “good.”

Judgment is the antithesis of worship. Gratitude is at the heart of worship. Gratitude causes us to reflect and as a consequence leads to empathy and compassion for others. Empathy and compassion are essential elements of love.

Gratitude is righteous. It is central to our spiritual life. In all things give thanks is to love more abundantly. And God is love. In gratitude we are nearer to God and grateful for all things even for what we don’t want.

“Wisdom is the principle thing;
therefore get wisdom:
and with all thy getting get understanding.”
The Bible, The Proverbs

God asked King Solomon to choose between wealth, power, and wisdom. Solomon chose wisdom. God was so pleased with his choice that Solomon received wealth and power as well.

Why would we be any different? Well … we’re not!

For a couple of years I studied with an Orthodox Rabbi. I thought, as a Christian, it would help me to better understand the New Testament if I understood how Jesus would have interpreted the Old Testament. Jesus was, after all, an Orthodox Jew. My study was an enlightening experience. (more…)

Life Everlasting

Some ten years ago I felt compelled to write to a former dear friend of mine about a wrong that I had done to him over twenty years ago. I knew at the time of the action that what I was doing was wrong but in my youthful arrogance I ignored my better judgment and behaved in a manner that I knew was wrong. My letter to my friend was humbling to write and heart-felt in content. I did more than say “I’m sorry” I asked for his forgiveness.

My friend was very gracious. He promptly wrote back and communicated the he held no ill will and that, indeed, he had forgiven me. Of course, I was relieved. But then he said something that I have considered and reconsidered ever since. He said he was “so pleased to know that the real Greg, the kind, caring Greg was back.” I was intrigued by his comment because although I had certainly behaved in a manner that I deemed as wrong I knew the “real Greg” had never left. The real Greg had been present at all times regardless of the behavior I demonstrated. Even in the midst of my regretful actions the “kind, caring Greg” was there, observing. (more…)

Thirty Five Years and Thirty Five Minutes?

The other evening I checked out Tom Brokaw’s television special on the baby boomers. I am a boomer so I have an inherent interest. He went back more than thirty five years to the late sixties and early seventies to review what boomers had experienced in their adolescence and early adulthood and to consider how those experiences had affected them.

He highlighted the impact that the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and MLK had on my generation. He spent a significant chunk of time on the message boomers sent with that massive love-in, drug-fest, rock and roll concert called Woodstock. Of course he covered the effects of the Vietnam War and the anti war protests as well as the Kent State shootings. As I sat watching a chronicle of the defining moments of my early life I had this strange sense that while 35 years had passed I was still twenty and really no time had elapsed at all. It was a sort of time warp. (more…)

Anguish is an inevitable experience in our human experience. It is universal and ubiquitous. It is also known as misery. Although it is subtle it underlies our everyday experience. On the surface we look all right. We smile, joke and seem to have our wits about us but if we are really honest we sense something is just not right.

Anguish is one of the reasons we frantically search for distraction. Eat more, drink more, work harder, buy more things but, above all, stay busy. Patients tell me that they can’t afford to be in quiet solitude for fear of the overwhelming uneasiness. Some call it anxiety. Others call it depression. But is it really either? They come for treatment. But is it a psychomedical problem or is it anguish? (more…)

“…the knowledge of the heart, the unified center of the inner life is the instinct that carries us upward…without it religion remains an uncertain struggle.”
Pascal

There is a center. Every one of us has a center. In the center, our center, there is “peace that passes all understanding,” a joy beyond description, and wisdom of a divine quality.

There is that of God in every one. We are all made in God’s image yet even more He resides with us. God is so close that we most often take the Divine presence for granted. Rarely will He somehow manifest directly before our senses in the perceptual world. But it is then that we “see” Him. In fact, He’s always been there.

God’s indwelling is experienced most profoundly at our center. As we slow down, quiet down, center down and open our selves to “knowing” we experience His presence as surely as we breath.

The Inward Light exists with all and for all. It is Christ, the Messiah, in all. Jesus brought us the way to the center, to that of God in all of us.

Even before Jesus lived on this planet Christ, the Messiah, lived in each and every person, always holding the promise of peace, joy, wisdom and, of course, salvation, in this life and the next, through reunion with our Heavenly Father. Because we have been seduced and continue to be seduced by our desire for control, to play god, we don’t “see” Him although he’s right there. Jesus came, divinity in a physical form, so that we, the blind, might see.

In the quiet, the solitude, and contemplation, with appreciation for His sovereignty and the ever-present intimacy we become aware, some say awakened, to the presence, God’s presence. And inevitably our consciousness, our focus of faith is changed. We “see” that all comes from Him. We give up our illusions of control. We are undeniably and unalterably changed.

“God is like your kindly old physics professor.” Considering my dislike for physics I find the word “kindly” to be incompatible with the study of physics. The Hobbit is an engineer by training, a Purdue University mechanical engineer at that. He
enjoys and understands physics. He often speaks of the “physics of consciousness.”

Truth is I didn’t try very hard at physics. It really never captured my interest. Psychology, now I was fascinated by psychology. Much of what he says I eventually understand but this “physics of consciousness” business is different.

Now, he also says, “Jesus was God’s audio-visual” of what life is really all about. I get the idea of an audio-visual. Actually, I’ve always thought that Jesus’ life was more the point than his death and resurrection. But I think I’m in the minority on that one. Don’t get me wrong, I think his final three days and his forty days on earth after his death are a critical part of the whole story but may be not the most critical. (more…)

Jesus came for “ME.” Not “I” but “ME.”

“ME” is soul. My soul is the point, the very first moment, of consciousness or awareness of life, before any perception, before any actual sensory experience. Never seen, always present but largely unrecognized, my soul is nothing that “I” am.

Everything “I” am is worldly. “I” is created. Just as all that I see, hear, touch, smell and taste was created. Of course, all that is created has a beginning and an ending. And in the middle is entropy, that gradual process of deterioration and decay. Death! (more…)

There are, for me, two levels of living. One level is perceptual, all things sensual. This aspect of my experience is referred to as “I.” This is persona. It is that which I see of myself in the world. For many years persona, “Greg,” was all that I knew myself to be.  

I had a number of other “different” experiences. The first of these experiences occurred when I was about five years old. Others occurred sporadically through out my life. They were not perceptual but yet were real experiences.  

These experiences were of such a nature that I was confronted with the undeniable fact that some other process was acting through me with which I was not perceptually in touch.   (more…)