Spirit & Soul

The other night Aaron spoke on the nature of worship. During the course of sermon he read a passage (? address) from the message that said something along the lines of worship is our spirit/soul interacting with God in honesty. This sparked memories of past thoughts for me. I have often wondered what exactly our spirit is. This honesty of soul may be a good starting point for understanding this concept.

Something that has always struck me in the old testament is the use of names. Names were not just symbolic placeholders for individual identification, but spoke to who the person was, it was more than a name, as we understand the word. I wonder if this could inform the biblical beginnings of our new testament concept of the personal/individual spirit.

For a long time, I always viewed spirit, my spirit, as something "other" than myself. Now I wonder if there may be more to it. I wonder if my spirit is really myself at my core. If it is the culminations of my longings, my thoughts, and my habits. Day to day, I am separated from this spirit by my deviations of my core self, yet it informs everything I do. Given this view of spirit, it will change and develop over time as I change through my experiences and as my world view forms.

For me, this idea leads to another thought, the idea of Christ's redemption as played out in my own life. As I grow into relationship with God, this, if real, will begin to inform my behaviors and over time, change who I am at my core. On the other hand, if I delve into my own devices, my core will crumble.

Just some random thoughts.