What does it mean to be Integrated?
Anyone who knows me can tell that I’m a very convicted and passionate person. A sense of justice has always been in my bones. With justice comes mercy. And at times, these two things can seem irreconcilable.
In fact, a lot of things about our human experience can seem disjointed and incompatible. Mostly, I’ve realized, that this is because sin darkens the intellect.
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ”
The fall of Adam truly has done so much damage to man that at times, the simple mundane tasks that drive us closer to our Lord feel…. impossible. As St. Paul himself writes in his letter to the Romans, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” He continues a couple verses later, “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want to do.” St. Paul’s interior struggle seems to me to be something that we have all experienced at different times in our lives— usually when we find ourselves precariously enslaved by things we thought were freeing. This dichotomy that can exist within ourselves points to something really important— discord between the body and the soul can cause an immense amount of damage in our lives, in our relationships to others, in our relationship with God, and in how we know and express ourselves.
Over the years, I’ve done radio and several other things, but I’ve always had a sense that I wanted to talk about a lot more than what was within the scope of what I have always been doing. My interests and passions have evolved as I’ve gotten older, and often I’d find that after conversations with family and friends, I always I had a lot of support for launching my own project.
Once I decided to launch my own podcast and blog, I found myself stuck a little. When I considered what I’m passionate about, there were so many themes that came to the fore— abortion, the dignity of man, human sexuality, health of body and mind and so much more. I spent a lot of time trying to ascertain what the thread was that brought all of these things together, and after a great deal of prayer and musing, it came down to this question: how do we come to terms with our body and our souls? More than that, how do we live in a way that brings the soul and the body together so that they live in harmony and reflect God’s goodness and plan for our lives?
I believe that so much of the discontentment, disappointment, and suffering we experience in our Earthly lives can be attributed to our bodies and our souls living disconnected lives. There is so much out there that robs us of our peace, and it’s no secret that gnosticism is alive and well, making a sneaky resurgence in our culture of licentiousness and hedonism. Where there is often little regard for there body, there is an emphasis on the soul while in other cases, there is an over-emphasis on the body with little regard for the soul.
Our bodies allow us to experience the world through our senses and experiences, and they are meant to give expression to the eternal— to our souls. These two parts of our own nature are what make man unique in God’s creation, and both deserve respect. God teaches us so much about ourselves within the design of our own bodies, and these innate truths point to Him and his plan for our lives. They provide guidelines for our purpose on this earth— the ways by which we need to conquer our sin, and the extreme need we have to rely on His grace.
In this blog and on the podcast, I will be exploring questions about our human nature with a special attentiveness to bridging the chasm that often exists between the intellect and the will, our bodies and our souls. I want to explore difficult questions, stories of conversion, and relevant issues in our culture and in the Church with an eye towards how we can live lives in accord with our nature, reconciling our brokenness with God’s mercy and justice.
I’m looking forward to sharing with you some amazing stories and interviews with the goal of offering a different perspective in the virtual sphere to give voice to something that I think lives deeply within each of us— Truth in Christ.
I hope you will find purpose in living a life that’s Integrated.
