“My Name Is Bob…”
In my P&R booklet, Anxiety, crafted over a decade ago, I began with these honest words,
“My name is Bob, and I struggle with and against worry, fear, and anxiety.”
Eleven years later, in March 2023, I had a “crash.” Anxiety and fear, weakness and weariness, seemed to envelop me.
Scripture-Dependent Soul Care
In April 2023, I began meeting with a biblical counselor. His “whole-person” approach to caring for my embodied-soul helped me tremendously.
Being a biblical counselor and meeting with a biblical counselor, I engaged in all the “overtly spiritual means of grace.” I practiced numerous individual and corporate spiritual disciplines: time in the Word, prayer, Scripture meditation, Scripture application, Sabbath rest, solitude with God, lament to God, resting in Christ, fellowship with God’s people, participating in the Lord’s Supper, hearing God’s Word preached, etc., etc., etc.
I even re-read and re-applied my own booklet on Anxiety!
The booklet walks us through a comprehensive gospel-centered approach from Philippians, including:
- Guard Your Relationship to God, Your Guard: Faith in Your Father
- Commit to Mature Relationships with God’s People: It Takes a Congregation
- Cling to Your Identity in Christ: Wholeness in Christ
- Put on the Mind of Christ: The Weapons of Your Warfare
- Practice What You Preach: Living and Loving with Courage
- Soothe Your Soul in Your Savior: Emotional Maturity 101
- Live Wisely in a Fallen World: Jars of Clay (For more on this final point, see, Anxiety and Our Physical Bodies: God’s Care for Embodied-Souls.)
I also re-studied Scripture and biblical counseling books on anxiety, fear, and phobias. I then developed a ten-page, single-spaced FAITH plan (maybe another book…?).
Scripture-Dependent Embodied-Soul Care
Yes. I did all the “overtly spiritual disciplines” as I faced my fears face-to-face with my Father.
Yes. I also engaged in the equally spiritual disciplines of care for my body—my embodied-soul.
Early each morning and late each evening I would set aside focused time to get alone with the Lord (as our Lord did with His Father in Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46-47; Luke 6:12; John 6:15). I’d cry out to Christ in prayer. I would meditate on Scripture. And I would engage in progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing exercises. I rested—soul and body—in my Savior.
Every time I sat in our blue recliner, lights off, sounds off, cell phone off, and began my series of deep breathing exercises, every breath was a conscious reminder of my need for the breath of God.
The Hebrew word for “Spirit” is ruach and the Greek word is pneuma. Both words have the idea of breath, air.
Every deep breath I took in through my nose and held, and every deep breath I exhaled through my lips, consciously reminded me of my absolute, nano-second-by-nano-second need for the Spirit—my need for absolute dependence upon Christ.
In my weakness and weariness, I was resting body and soul in the Restful one (Matthew 11:28-30), finding His grace to help in my time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16), and experiencing His sufficient grace and strength in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) so I could love and serve Him and others (Matthew 22:35-40).
If I were writing an anxiety/fear booklet today, I might begin with these words,
“Hi. My name is Bob. As I wrestle with anxiety and fear, I’m never more Christ-dependent than when I’m doing deep breathing exercises.”
Of Spirituality and Ice Cubes
There’s an embodied-soul physiological intervention I have not (yet) practiced: holding an ice cube in my palm in order to slow down and ground myself in the present moment. For some, this is an embodied-soul way to be still and be reminded, present-moment-by-present-moment, of our need for God, of the nearness of God, and of Christ’s call to come and rest in Him.
Some might retort, “Don’t hold an ice cube! Hold and read your Bible!”
Why not both?
Why not the Bible and ice cubes?
Why not feasting on the Word of God and breathing deeply in dependence on the Spirit of God? Both are spiritual.
Of Elijah and Spurgeon
Some might distort this saying, “You’re equating the power of scriptural truth with the potential effectiveness of deep breathing.”
No. I am applying scriptural truth concerning our embodied-soul.
Spirituality includes embracing physical weakness (2 Corinthians 1:8-9; 2 Corinthians 4:7-10; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). When we ignore the biblical importance of the body, we misunderstand what it means to trust God.
Emotions, including anxiety, fear, and phobias, involve physiological components that often may need to be addressed with physical interventions—and always with comprehensive body-soul interventions. This should always include a healthy diet, exercise, rest, relaxation, and sleep.[i] This can also often legitimately include other biological/physiological interventions such as deep breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, or clutching a melting ice cube, etc.
Elijah in his despondency and fear needed his soul strengthened by the Lord’s presence and his body strengthened by food, drink, and rest (1 Kings 19:8).
Spurgeon in his sorrows, wisely explained to his students that “a mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best” (Lectures to My Students 158). As John Piper notes, “very practically Spurgeon supplements his theological survival strategy with God’s natural means of survival—his use of rest and nature.” Eventually this annually involved a lengthy time of sabbatical that included Spurgeon resting his embodied-soul in the hot springs of France.
For additional teaching on the Scriptures and our embodied-soul, see, 45 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: The Bible, the Body, the Embodied-Soul, Research, Science, and Neuroscience.
Whole-Person Devotions
A Christian leader I ministered to began doing what he called “whole-person devotions.” After we talked about all the “overtly spiritual means of grace” to address his concerns, we added the equally spiritual means of bodily interventions, such as deep breathing exercises.
This Christian leader reported to me, with joy, that our comprehensive biblical approach was giving him victory in Christ that he had not seen in two decades. He loved beginning every morning with his whole-person devotions that included time in the Word, prayer, Scripture meditation/application, and deep breathing exercises—reminders of his constant need for Christ.
The Spirituality of Our Physicality
I enjoyed today’s Biblical Counseling Coalition post by Dr. Charles Hodges entitled, They Shall Run and Not Be Weary. I’ve always appreciated Dr. Hodges’s biblical balance regarding being soul physicians of embodied-souls.
In his post, Dr. Hodges interacted with a recent neuroscience study comparing the effectiveness of medication and of running for addressing mood. As part of his conclusions, Dr. Hodges, asked:
- “As biblical counselors, should we be encouraging those struggling with sadness to go out for a good run?”
- “Do you encourage your counselees to include physical activity in their daily regimen when they face persistent sadness?”
I might add,
- As biblical counselors—as soul physicians of embodied-souls—do we encourage our counselees to address issues comprehensively—with all their heart, affections, mind, soul, spirit, will, emotions, body—including with “going for a run,” “practicing deep breathing,” and perhaps, “holding an ice cube”?
The Scriptures and the Sacredness of the Body
God designed us as embodied-souls, as a complex unity (as Jay Adams said, a “duplex”)[ii] of body/soul (Genesis 2:7) and called our embodiment “very good” (Genesis 1:31). It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that. (For additional teaching on embodied-souls, see 112 Biblical Passages on Being Embodied-Souls.)
Our calling from God is to be His “under-shepherds” and “under-scientists” who rule over His physical creation (Genesis 1:26-28). It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that.
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and so we are to honor God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that.
Our daily physical lives are an opportunity to glorify God in even the seemingly most “mundane” of activities—like glorifying God through our eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31). It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that.
Our sanctification is embodied sanctification. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship. It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that.
Our embodied-soul is vital in our future glorification.
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
It doesn’t get any more spiritual, any more sacred than that.
Bodily interventions—interventions designed to address the fact that God created us as embodied-souls—are sacred interventions. Deep breathing exercises (and ice cubes) are only secular if we make them secular.
Biblical Counseling and the Body, Part 1
Gregg Allison, in Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fractured World, writes:
“The church has been infected with the disease of Gnosticism and neo-Gnosticism. The church elevates spiritual and immaterial matters and minimizes or even denigrates physical and material matters. The church is held captive to anti-body sentiments. As a result, a holistic sanctification—a full-orbed process of maturing as wholly developed Christians that includes making progress as embodied believers—is rarely envisioned and pursued” (Allison, 127).
How might we “gently” word this for our biblical counseling world?
- Is it possible that in our biblical counseling world we at times have been infected with the disease of Gnosticism and neo-Gnosticism?
- At times in our biblical counseling, do we elevate spiritual and immaterial matters and minimize or even denigrate physical and material matters?
- In any way is the modern biblical counseling movement held captive to anti-body sentiments?
- Might it be accurate to say that a holistic sanctification—a full-orbed process of maturing as wholly developed Christians that includes making progress as embodied believers—is too rarely envisioned and pursued in our actual ministry, interventions, and methods as biblical counselors?
- Are we acting primarily as soul physicians of souls, rather than as soul physicians of embodied-souls?[iii]
Biblical Counseling and the Body, Part 2
Because the biblical counseling movement rightly worries that the world doesn’t account for spiritual realities, we then can be tempted to move to an unbiblical counter extreme. We overcompensate by undervaluing the physical and overemphasizing the immaterial.
If we are not careful, we can become just as “monistic” as the world, but in the opposite direction.
- The world tends to focus only on the body and material matters, dismissing, denying or minimizing the soul, the spiritual (this is physical “monism”).
- Christians and biblical counselors, if we are not careful, can tend to focus only or almost exclusively on the soul and immaterial matters, tending to dismiss or minimize the importance and sacredness of the body, of the physical (this is spiritual or spiritualized “monism”). (This way of thinking about human beings has more in common with Platonic philosophy, Gnostic theology, and Enlightenment secular thinking than with biblical theology.)
If we are not careful; if we are not biblical, we can become soul physicians of souls, instead of being biblical soul physicians of embodied-souls.[iv]
Puritan pastor Timothy Rogers (1658-1728), describes this well and wisely.
“There is danger that the bodily physician will look no further than the body, while the spiritual physician will totally disregard the body, and look only at the mind” (from Preface to A Discourse on Trouble of the Mind and the Disease of Melancholy).
“A Jar of Clay”
When I engage in deep breathing exercises, I am consciously acknowledging to myself and to God that I am a jar of clay.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).
Maybe I should begin my next booklet with the words,
“Hi. My name is Bob. I am a jar of clay.”
When I breathe deeply, I am embracing:
- The spiritual importance of wise care for my body (1 Corinthians 6:13-20).
- The need to master my body (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
- The validity of physical treatments for my embodied-soul (1 Timothy 5:23).
- The value of physical training (1 Timothy 4:8).
- The frailty of my body (2 Corinthians 4:7).
- The impact of the fall on my body (Romans 8:19-25).
- The relationship between my bodily weakness, my emotional/spiritual weakness, and Christ’s grace and strength (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Christ-Dependent and Scripture-Trusting
Todd Stryd’s excellent Journal of Biblical Counseling article, “‘Take a Deep Breath’—How Counseling Ministry Addresses the Body, summarizes well my thoughts.
“Alongside the practice of creating space for reflection, the act of pacing our breathing can itself be an act of faith and trust. To slow down and steady our response, despite challenging circumstances, is an act of faith and trust in the promises that ‘God is near,’ and ‘He will never leave nor forsake,’ and ‘He dwells with you and will be in you.’ It helps us to ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Stillness involves both body and soul—and can pay attention to both” (67, emphasis added).
“The act of breathing in a strategic, attentive manner can be practically embedded into the way we help people live out their goals of love, virtue, and righteousness. We can use every resource at our disposal to achieve the goal of our faith. The Christian pursuit of body/soul balance does not belittle the utility of attentive breathing, but at the same time pursues much more. God’s people are encouraged to use both body and soul to pursue the kingdom goals of loving God and loving our neighbors” (74, emphasis added).
As I said at the start,
“I am never more Christ-dependent than when I’m doing deep breathing exercises.”
Perhaps if I start cupping an ice cube, I could say it like this:
“I am never more Scripture-trusting than when I am clutching and reading a Bible in one palm and clutching an ice cube in the other palm.”
A Psalm and a Palm
Hmm. Makes me think… Perhaps I could summarize this entire post with this phrase:
“A Psalm and a Palm.”
Notes
[i] Numerous times in his writings, Jay Adams discussed the importance of these physical issues for biblical counselors, including sleep and sleep studies. For instance, in What About Nouthetic Counseling? Adams states, “I have profited greatly, for instance, from the results of the work done at the Harvard sleep labs (and elsewhere). This sleep study I consider to be a valid and worthwhile enterprise for such psychology” (31).
[ii] In A Theology of Christian Counseling, forty years ago, Adams championed the need for a series of biblical counseling books addressing and applying the embodied-soul nature of humanity. “There is an earthly side to man, but there is a heavenly or spiritual side as well. Man belongs to both worlds” (109). “The emphasis in the Scriptures, however, is upon the unity of these entities. That is why I prefer the term duplex (meaning ‘twofold’). This word stresses the unity of the elements (they are ‘folded’ together), rather than their separability” (110). “The implications for counseling that grow out of the fact of human nature’s duplex form are too vast even to list. Here is one of those places where an entire book (or series of books) is needed to explore these fully” (110). “My work is but suggestive, of course; much more work is needed to supplement and sharpen it” (118).
[iii] Interestingly, in his first book, Competent to Counsel, Jay Adams supported nouthetic counseling by stating and developing the concept that “The Nervous System Corresponds to the Nouthetic Approach” (p. 96/Header). For more on this, see, Jay Adams, Nouthetic Counseling, and Neuroscience.
[iv] As noted earlier, for much more on biblical counseling and the embodied-soul, see, 45 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: God Designed Us as Embodied-Souls. For an introduction to a possible book on this topic, see, 10 Questions About Biblical Counseling and Neuroscience: Becoming Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls.
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