You Are a Trinity (Jan 8-14)
This week in snapshots:
Lived in: Laramie, WY
Reading: The Great Omission (Dallas Willard), Pastoral Song (James Rebanks)
Podcast: No Dumb Questions 145
Album: The Vow (UPPERROOM)
Watching: Plant You
Playing: Deep Rock Galactic
Something I Learned: The Great Molasses flood of Boston in 1919 occurred on a Wednesday. (See this week’s podcast lol)
How’s the beginning of the year going for you?
Mine has been full of slow movement and lots of intentional time. I’m a huge fan, since things will invariably pick up by the end of the month.
Just want to say a huge thank you for reading and responding to these emails (with written words and spoken words haha!). It has been incredibly fun, and I appreciate you 👊
While I couldn't sleep earlier this week on jetlag, I found myself lying, close-eyed in bed thinking about the Trinity. My headcanon is that God has may have 7 nameable "parts," but orthodox Christianity celebrates God in the three parts presently revealed to us: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This correlates quite nicely with the three parts Yhwh named in us in Deuteronomy 6 when he commanded Israel to love Yhwh their God with all their Heart (spirit), all their Soul (mind/will/emotions), and all their Strength (body). Jesus would later be so kind to us Greeks as to separate out our minds to themselves (Matt 22:35-40)... because Greeks and their philosophical descendants (aka everyone who participates in academics) are, after all, mind-focused!
I am a triune being in relationship with a triune Being. And I began thinking about it, because if I am to love my triune God with my triune self, that means there are at least three distinct ways I can love him.
Let's take corporate worship as an example:
With my soul, I can activate my mind to consider the lyrics I'm singing. If I sing out of habit, then I'm really not worshiping him with my mind. It takes will to choose to sing the words that I mean, and to change lyrics I don't mean into ones I do mean, but in so doing I find myself having emotions about what is happening in my mind, and my whole soul engages Him in worship.
My body is very simple to worship with in a modern context: all you have to do is stand! Of course there are more modern physical expressions (headbanging) and more historic expressions (raising hands, dancing, jumping, kneeling, bowing), but all you have to do is choose one and do it. Boom. Body engaged in loving him!
I know there are lots of ways people think about spirit (please tell me what yours is?). Mine is a combination of Willard's "personal power" + whatever it is that makes you really you and isn't your soul or body. I imagine that it is more closely related to my body and soul than I realize... and is formed by not just the Holy Spirit working in me, but the choices it makes regarding what my mind thinks about and how my body behaves. Which is why I choose to engage my mind and body during worship - so Holy Spirit has direct access to my spirit!
I imagine this thought process could be carried out into all aspects of life (especially since it is the Great Commandment Jesus gave us). And in these slower moments I find myself wondering how I am allowing the parts of my triune self to be engaged in what I'm doing - and what that is doing to my relationship with my triune God.
What are some places you find separation between your triune self? Or unity? Why do you suppose it's easier/harder to love Yhwh your God with all your spirit but not all your mind or body (or vice versa and every combination in between) and what is your process for navigating it?
I'm definitely a mind person 😅 And I try to thank Jesus for making me that way.
Let me know what you're thinking and peace be with you this week!
—Beth
