Sharpening Your Saw: The Mind, The Heart, The Soul, Spirit, Body,
The soul is me, myself, and I. The soul is the very core of one’s being. The soul is the very self. The actual living being. The soul is the innermost self. The seat of our appetites, emotions, and passions. The activity of our mind, our will, and our character.
The soul is me, myself, and I. Me and myself are both objects. I and myself are the subjects.
When I am the subject, I am performing the action. When something is happening to me, I become the object of the action. For example, today, I will love myself.
At one time in my life, when I heard the phrase “me, myself, and I,” I thought egotistical, selfish, self-centered. However, as I am maturing in God’s wisdom, sharpening the self, I have come to realize “me, myself, and I” does not have to be considered egotistical or self-centered. Me, myself, and I do not have to be identified as a negative attribute when “me, myself, and I” doesn’t describe someone who believes the world revolves around them. Have you ever met anyone who thinks they are all that and a bag of chips? That’s a “me, me, me” attitude. That person can’t look beyond self or me.
Me, myself, and I are the soul. The soul is me, myself, and I. And sharpening the soul, the very core of one’s being, can be making a difference in the lives of others and or doing things that are meaningful to and for the self. Let’s face it, and when I love myself, I am more loving to others. When I care for myself, I can care for others. Yet, sharpening the soul takes patience and grace. I’m sure many can say they have not always loved themselves or cared for themselves in a meaningful way. I, for one, can remember a moment in my life when I was continually and continuously on the go. I was not nourishing me, myself, or I. I wasn’t resting properly. I was doing and doing too much. As a result, my soul was parched and dry.
When do we begin sharpening the soul?
So, the question is not how to sharpen the soul, but when do we begin sharpening the soul. Sharpening the soul starts with a yearning for something different. When your soul is parched and dry. Sharpening the soul begins when me, myself, and I desire change. When God pokes at our soul, the Eternal One looks deeper into our life and causes us to want even more sharpening, refining, improving our soul. Sometimes the desire to sharpen the soul begins because we have walked away from feeding our soul. Nourishes us. Being in the very presence of God. The Lord’s poking and prodding will cause us to grow thirsty.
When was the last time you were thirsty? Thirsty for something that would quench your desire, yearning, longing. Thirsty for something that would satisfy your thirst does not drown you something that would make you eager but not desperate. Thirsty for God to soothe your soul, your innermost being.
The idea of sharpening the soul takes me back to 2000 when I became fixated on the first three lines of the song “As the Deer.”
“As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after Thee
You alone are my heart’s desire.”
The image of a deer breathless, yearning, having intense eagerness for water pointed to one thirsty deer. A deer can only become this thirsty when the deer’s been away from the watering hole. A deer stays lose to the watering hole. A deed drinks water before it will eat food. A deer drinks 3-5 quarts a day. A deer only needs a puddle to refresh its thirst. Therefore, if the deer is thirsty, it’s been away from its water source too long. And it requires that which quenches it thirsts.
These three lines can be found in Psalm 42:1-2a. Here the psalmist’s soul, his very person, me, myself, and I, thirst for God, not any God but the living God. As in living water, God can quench a thirst that moistens and refreshes the soul, like dew on morning grass.
The psalmist knows the goodness of the Lord, like the deer knows the goodness of the water. The psalmist has been away from the source of his water, God, his sacred sanctuary. Things are not going right. You know when things in your life are not going right. Your enemies show up. Your morning routine gets off-kilter. You got more shoulda, coulda, woulda than praise for the moment of the experience. And days keep moving so fast that you can’t keep up—your soul thirst for so much more.
Then we find soul, me, myself, and I, resting in and on me, me, me. Our soul is parched and dry. Tired because our source has dried up or we have turned away from it. Like the deer, we pant for water. Like the psalmist, our soul desires God. It takes time, patience, and care. It takes the Divine power of God to sharpen the soul: me, myself, and I.
And the seat of our appetites, emotions, and passions. The activity of our mind, our will, and our character longs to be sharpened by the goodness of the Lord. Quenched by living water.
Until next time,
Angela