“You don’t have a soul. You ARE a soul. You HAVE a body.“
This is great news! Wrestling with the loss of friends, health issues among loved ones and my own physical changes in this decade of life, this is a timely reminder from C. S. Lewis.
Our bodies are temporary, but our souls are who we are. We will leave this tent behind and there will be no sickness or pain, no aging or injury.
Yes, it’s important to be good stewards of what we have been given – especially so as to make the most of our time here for the Kingdom. But my priorities need to be investing in what is truly going to last, what is truly eternal. Love God. Love others. Invest in eternity.
Some day I’ll trade this body for a new and better one and we’ll get to see each other as we really are. I’m excited. This is good news, indeed!
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please Him. 1 Corinthians 5:1-9
