We are Here.

Value assumes a sort of self-discovery.  A TV remote that makes my life simpler does not directly bring this sort of discovery.  It is a handy gadget that makes my life simpler.  Simpler may allow for more time for important things.  It may also lead me to an overly sedentary lifestyle.          

A remote creates the possibility of more discovery, but does not guarantee it.  Somethings ultimate value is ultimately tied to its longterm sustainability.  Does it truly bring wholistic value or is it simply a shortcut for real value?  Sooner or later this will become clear.

Things once celebrated are later denounced.  Some rode the wave and made the money while they could. Sure.  But could they sustain the value?  Most don’t even try (knowing it is futile to predict the future).  “Ride the wave while you can.  Make your money.  Take what you can.” This is the value status quo.

Short-term gain is better than no gain at all.  Or worse yet, loss.    

People of faith look at it differently.  We must.  Jesus laid down one of the strongest either/or statements in history: Either you will serve God or you will serve money (Matt. 6.24).  The word he used was “mamonas” (wealth personified, even deified ), it is the treasure one puts trust in.

What treasure do you trust in to bring value?  Things that profit the immediate physicality of our existence OR invisible things that only seem to benefit the soul?  This is the ultimate question of value: which of the two economies are we supporting in this world?   

One values what is good for the soul.  Words.  Education.  Calling.  Art.  Learning things that are essential to being human.  The other values what is good for the body.  Food.  Energy.  Business.  Things essential to surviving.  And so we choose between the two.

Now certainly there is overlap.  One is not completely isolated from the other.  It can’t be.  Taking care of physical needs is an essential part of getting to soul health.  We are embodied, after all.  Our needs are integrated.  But the soul dictates long-term health.

What matters more is the soul.  Not the body.  The soul alone can dictate what will have long-term value.  Having all your bodily needs met is simply not enough.  The restlessness of the soul is like an eternal well - dug way too deep for the daily consumables of the body to fill.

It doesn’t mean your body is evil, just very incomplete.  It doesn’t tell us the whole picture.  While gadgets and mechanisms must be built for our bodily health and survival - and may be good and necessary for that reason, they are not enough.  Surviving alone does not survive.

We are more than our bodies.  And life is more than surviving.  Even premium health of body - fitness and nutrition - can only go so far in scratching the itch of the soul.  They are good.  Certainly.  But not enough.  There is more!  Don’t fret or fear the fact, embrace its truth.

Bearing this "more" (of human consciousness) can be heavy.  But it is the weight of existence  - the glory of the human be-ing, the awareness that there is more.  It both roots us in our human identity AND uproots us from our immediate surrounding and context.  We are here.

But we are more than here.  And maybe so is our context.   

Perhaps there is a spirit to our context.  And even to our bodies.  Perhaps even these physical things can be reconciled to glory.  Maybe there is a way to see our physical survival mechanisms as more than survival.  Perhaps there is an inherent spiritual quality to the physical we have missed, but can recover.