A Living Metaphor for Well Being

Never a Dull Moment in this Adventure with Christ

Most organizations say they have Core Values to which everyone in the company is expected to accept and operate out of, no matter how small or how large their job description is.

Most areas of human endeavor, from science to technology to the arts, have their construct of language, in which they attempt to state the “big idea” of who they are and what they are about. Simplistically speaking, scientists are about the Data. Technology is about Innovation. The arts are about Creativity. Data, Innovation, Creativity. Hmmm...Sounds deliciously human and profoundly gifted.

Christianity (my tradition) is about following someone named Jesus, not knowing ahead of time where he will lead. And so, I suppose we could say that being a Christian is about Adventure with a capital “A.” Living into that Adventure with Jesus, is the most exciting thing that I know anything about. There is never a dull moment. It’s an Adventure that involves Faith, Hope, and Love.

So, what is at the heart of each one’s Adventure? Mine? Yours? I believe that, if we reflect deeply enough, we can discover a richness that is difficult to describe in usual or literal language. For me, that’s where metaphors come in handy. Metaphors that describe our life in Christ, our Adventure in Him.

Do you think that our core values, our data, innovation, creativity, faith, hope, and love might become clearer, because of our intentionally chosen metaphor? (In case you’ve forgotten), a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. One of my favorite metaphors that has stayed with me for decades is human life, human essence pictured as the ancient Jewish Temple.

I learned about this metaphor by reading books by a Chinese Christian named Watchman Nee, who was martyred for his faith in the middle of the twentieth century. Nee bases his metaphor on St Paul’s writings. In I Thessalonians 5:23, Paul writes, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Nee took that to mean that our Spirit and our Soul are two different entities and not to be conflated to mean the same thing. The terms are not interchangeable.

Further, in II Corinthians 6:16b, St Paul writes, “For we are the temple of the living God.” And in Genesis 1, we are told that we are made in the image of God. Because of these Scriptures (and more), Nee formulated this metaphor of how we are a Temple, to describe how we are Holy, intended by God to be reverenced as His Creation.

Here is the metaphor, in the manner that Nee developed it: The structure of the Temple was rectangular, with three main rooms inside: The Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Anyone could enter the largest room, the Outer Court, listen to teachings, conduct transactions, or have relationships with other people. It was at times, a noisy, busy, crowded place.

Nee’s metaphor likens our Physical Body to the Outer Court. Our Body is our physiology, the entity that can be readily seen. It’s where we have relationships, conduct transactions, learn from each other, or reach out and touch each other.

The Holy Place was a smaller square room inside of and at one end of the Temple. No one except the Jewish priests could enter the Holy Place, where they would conduct the sacrifices on the altar, in addition to other priestly duties. The metaphor says that our Soul is our Holy Place. Our Soul is inside us, less tangible than our Body. We can’t physically enter or physically touch anyone’s Soul. Emotionally touch, yes, but not physically. Our Soul, according to this metaphor, contains our emotions, our intellect, and our will – our feelings, our reasonings and thoughts, our discernings, decidings and doings. It is truly meaningful to me to think of my Soul in this way. And yes, it is a Holy Place.

The Holy of Holies, was the smallest room and was situated on the back wall inside the Holy Place. Only the Jewish High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies. He couldn’t go in there any time he wanted to. No, he could enter the Holy of Holies on only one day out of the whole year, on the Day of Atonement, when he would sprinkle blood from a sacrificed pure animal, onto the Ark of the Covenant to atone for the sins of the people. According to the metaphor, our Spirit is our Holy of Holies. Our Spirit contains our intuition, our conscience, and our ability to pray. Our Spirit breathes. Our Spirit breathes the Breath of God, spreading life into our Holy Place, and into our Outer Court. It is our Most Holy Place. Indeed.

This metaphor has had many layers of meaning for me over several decades. It never grows old or worn out. It only becomes deeper and richer, the older I become. It is as though I am “living into it,” in my Adventure in following Jesus.

This metaphor of the Jewish Temple is the format for my Adventure in following Jesus. Inside my Adventure with Him and along its developing way come my Core Values, the Data, Innovation and Creativity of my life, my Faith, Hope, and Love – including times when any of that remains steady or wavers and teeters along the way. This metaphor of the Temple helps me to reflect more clearly which part of me is being impacted by Life Events – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And then that impacted part of me is what I bring to Jesus in my metaphorical Temple. I am living into this metaphor in my Adventure with Him.

What about you? Have you ever thought about defining your life in Christ with a metaphor that you seem to be living into?