Doves On Distant Oaks

A Flu Shot for the Soul

When I was younger, I owned a motorcycle. It was a cheap mode of transportation for a poor college student, even though everyone warned me I was driving a two-wheeled coffin. For safety, I always wore a helmet and kept my headlight on (this was before mandatory helmets). One day, that might have been the difference between life and death.

I was coming home from classes, driving down a narrow street and approached an intersection. Though I had the right-of-way, a car suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of me. I could do very little and ran into the back side of the car. The bike stopped … I didn’t. I was thrown through the air over the trunk. The first thing I felt hit the pavement was the back of my helmet. If not for the helmet, I'm certain I would have had a significant head injury … or worse. Still, I had deep body contusions over most of my body.

Laying in the hospital, waiting for a CT scan, I had a chance to think about how fragile our bodies are. It doesn't take much to damage them. We do a lot of things to try and protect ourselves, but those efforts often fail. We take immunizations to protect us from viruses, wear helmets when riding a bicycle, surround ourselves with metal to form a cocoon when we drive a car, and build expensive houses to shelter us from life-threatening elements. Seat-belts, fire-alarms, the list goes on ... all to protect our bodies.

That is not a bad thing. Bodily self-preservation is one of the basic driving forces of human nature. Yet, for all our effort, we cannot totally prevent damage to our bodies. No matter how careful we are and what precautions we take, we are going to get injured or diseased. That doesn’t stop us from trying. Yet, we take no special precautions when it comes to the condition of our soul. This is curious, considering the fact that Jesus tells us our souls are of infinitely greater value than our bodies.

Our soul is just as fragile as our bodies. In an instant, our faith can be shaken to the very core and any safety measures we've installed to protect it—bible study, prayer, devotions, church ministries, worship—all do little to protect us when tribulations decide to come at us with the force of a hurricane. I have seen the souls of devout, mature Christian men and women crumble and fall under such an onslaught.

The only sure safety for our soul is the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives to protect us in a very real sense. Too often, we depend on our own efforts to protect us from tragedy brought about by the Evil One or his legions. Then, we wonder why we are lying on the spiritual pavement, face up toward the sky, with our soul broken and bleeding. We have failed to inoculate ourselves with the most important immunization for the soul—trusting in Christ rather than ourselves.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?

– Mark 8:35-37

Keywords: Protection, Soul

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