I published an article that may have caused my Christian friends to think I’ve lost my faith. As I’ve learned about mindset and how to manage my thoughts and emotions, I’ve reflected on the drive I’ve had all my life to grow as well as overcome the entrenched beliefs that held me back for so many years.
I grew up in church. Stop and read that again! I didn’t grow up going to church. I grew up in church. My parents were after everything God had for them. That passion is still there in them, and I have that passion as well. But my dad instilled in me the need to question. So it’s natural that I look back on my faith journey and ask why the dynamic life and transformation I read about in the Bible and heard in sermons didn’t work all that well for me.
Fractured souls and mindset traps
I wrote an article for Brainz magazine about the epidemic of fractured souls in the world today. It was almost two thousand words, and I found myself wanting to explain in even more detail. This post is my way of doing just that.
In my article, I wrote that the doctrine of most Protestant churches is that a new convert gets a clean slate and a new start when he or she becomes a Christian. And that person is changed from the inside out by the work of the Holy Spirit who now lives in them. I went on to say that the common practice of most churches is to use peer pressure and Bible teaching instead of relying on the Holy Spirit. People who join any group will adopt the manners, customs, attitudes, and mindset of the crowd in order to fit in.
Counting on psychology and persuasion to transform your life doesn’t help your soul. You can change the way you think, act, and believe. But this transformation stays in your intellect. The other two parts of your soul, your emotions and will, are barely affected by your intellectual thoughts.
Your soul is not made up of your mind, will, and emotions!
Pastors and teachers use this improper definition of the soul all the time. And most of the time the attitude and tone they use indicates that this definition is all you need to know about the soul. However, the definition of mind is “thoughts, emotions, and will.” So when psychologists and neuroscientists research the mind, they are actually studying the function and workings of the soul. Your soul is your thoughts, your emotion, and your will. Knowing the accurate definition is nice. But being able to look at secular psychology and insert soul in place of mind is helpful.
Thinking and trying to act like a Christian is hard when your faith is based only on your intellect. Psychologists believe that 90 – 95% of all your decisions and actions come from your unconscious mind–also called the subconscious. Your unconscious mind doesn’t respond to logic and reason. This is why you do things you know you shouldn’t. Or you don’t do things you know you should. What we call the subconscious is the two-thirds of the soul: the emotions and the will. And many Christians are locked in a life-long struggle to get their emotions and will to line up with their intellectual Christian thoughts.
So what about the Holy Spirit?
In spite of faith being an intellectual exercise, Christians still experience God working in their life. I think this is an example of God meeting us where we are. It also shows that God respects our free will. People will pressure you to submit to the approved doctrine and practices, but God is more respectful. God is the original “free range parent.”
It is true that the Holy Spirit is at work in each Christian. But the Holy Spirit won’t force you to grow or automatically mend your soul. Most Christians will tell you that “it’s a relationship, not a religion.” But if you ask what that relationship looks like, they will talk about what they do that makes them a Christian.
It is my hope to see Christians find how to mend their fractured souls and live in more than their thoughts and deeds. I talk about how to start in my long article in Brainz magazine. Since you’ve read this far here, you can skip down to the last five or six paragraphs to get to my conclusion.
I won’t stop asking questions. That may make some people uncomfortable. But I’m not satisfied with just believing the status quo any more. I haven’t lost my faith. But I want a faith that’s comfortable asking hard questions.
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