The Rational Rabbit Hole no. 2

“Is it well with you?”

Embrace the Within

Growing up in church, I always enjoyed a few hymns that would get the regular rotation in the Pentecostal church I attended. I always enjoyed Rock of Ages, Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, and Blessed Assurance to name just a few that come to mind quickly. BUT the one that was on my mind this morning during my scripture reading was It Is Well in My Soul. The first verse sings:

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Now I have been out on the Patuxent River crabbing when the water was billowing and rolling on a tiny boat and there is not a lot of peace at that moment. There is a lot of apprehension and fear. BUT in spite of that apprehension and fear, whatever my lot as the song sings, it is well in my soul. And I am really feeling that lesson today. Because for a long time I was out here preaching what I thought was the good word and things were not well in my soul. I made a lot of folks angry on purpose. And I was rather certain that they needed to be angry because they were in trouble. They were unhealthy and duped and programmed and ignorant and lost and any other pejorative adjective you would like to add on the heap.

I was rather shitty to folks and, in my self righteousness, I didn’t feel the least bit bad about that because it was their fault. They should know better, they should do better, they should be better. BUT, I understand that the pride I felt in what I was doing was one of the problems a lot of us have in our lives. We believe everyone is just like us. They look like us. They are in the same place as us. They have similar public lives as us. They must be like us. And we also look at people that are dissimilar externally in the same ways and think they are much different from us. So we get kind of hung up and confused when folks don’t think like we do. We get confused when folks don’t believe what we do. We get confused when folks have differing perspectives than we do. Well, then, they must be part of that different category all along. And we feel like we need to get them back into our herd, back into our flock, back into being our clone. And I think a lot of that is our own pride, our own control, our own self righteousness.

And I see it all around me now. I see it in parenting, in education, in friendships, in media, in politics, in families, in communities, in organizations, in religions, and all over God’s earth. We are not well in our souls. So we try to make others as unwell as we feel. And no amount of suffering will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of pride and self righteousness will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of activity and business will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of money or power will ever be enough to fill our hole. No amount of fame or glory will be enough to fill our hole. Because it’s a God-shaped hole. And that’s all that is ever going to be able to fill that hole. That is all that is ever going to make it well in our soul.

I hope all is well within your soul today. And if it isn’t, then take some time to make it well? Getting well, being healthy, is both the easiest and most difficult choice to make.

Bless your heart. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin