Soulshine

“You are the reason I live.” Erasure, Reason (2014) I hate to disagree with Erasure. They’ve been one of my favorite bands since the 1980s. But NO ONE can be the reason why I live, aside from myself and God. No other person outside of ourselves can truly be the reason why any of us live. If we find ourselves feeling that way it’s a big red flag. And that big red flag is trying to tell us that we are doing a poor job of loving ourselves. The only reason we ever feel like we can’t live without someone else is poor self-love. When we are in that state of poorly taking care of our own wants and needs, we will feel very empty inside. We will have an aching inner-neediness that drives us to be obsessed with ending that horrible, desperate feeling by attaching ourselves to someone else. The problem is when we are desperately trying to attach to someone else in order to feel better, we are like leeches sucking the blood or life out of the other person. And deep down we know...

“One evening King David rose from his bed and strolled about on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing; she was very beautiful. David sent people to inquire about the woman and was told, ‘She is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite .’   Then David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he took her to bed. ” 2 Samuel, The Hebrew Bible There are interesting parallels between the Hebrew story of King David and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story of Jay Gatsby. Both men see themselves as sons of God, destined for greatness. David conquers the Goliaths of his world and Gatsby conquers the Goliaths of his world. It seems easy for the two of them to conquer the men of their respective worlds. Maybe that’s because it’s part of God’s vision for their lives and the purpose that each one of them is meant to serve. But neither one of them is able to conquer the Goliaths they face of the opposite sex. In fac...