Michael Kelley's Blog, page 41

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. I’m Not a Pro

None of us are when it comes to parenting. But, as this article states, we are growing – not necessarily in our skills, but in our faith and dependence.

2. You Don’t Need Social Media to Make a Difference

If you want to make a difference in the world, there are better ways to do it than social media. Simpler, too.

3. What Convinced James His Brother was God?

I have often wondered about this peculiar relational dynamic, and so I enjoyed reading the perspective here.

4. Pitcher Tackles Baserunner After Homerun

Only in Texas, friends.

Why Remember Your Sin if God Has Already Removed It?

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:57-58).

This is a turning point in the book of Acts. Jesus had told His disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. He told them that once the Spirit fell, then they should wait no more. Rather, they should move outward and be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

The Spirit fell at Pentecost. Peter preached. Thousands repented and believed. The church was born…

And they stayed in Jerusalem. And stayed. And stayed. In fact, it was not until this moment when Stephen – one of their own – was stoned that they actually began to move out into the world. And that happened only because with the execution of Stephen came an onslaught of further persecution and violence. So the believers were dispersed. That’s when it turned.

But this is also a turning point because this is the first time that we are introduced to Saul. Saul, who was the coat check guy at the stoning. Saul, who then went on a rampage against believers. Saul, who was so zealous for protecting what he thought was true that he missed what was actually true. Saul, who finally met Jesus and went from the violent persecutor to the greatest theologian and missionary for the gospel the world has ever known. In fact, much of the rest of the Book of Acts is spent following Paul and his journeys to share the gospel with the known world.

We read about beatings, whippings, insults, and all kinds of other travails on these journeys, and yet Paul kept going. Kept preaching. All the way until he was eventually back in Jerusalem, arrested, and addressing the crowd. And in that moment, he remembered:

“And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him” (Acts 22:20).

Surely it wasn’t the first time that bloody day had come to his mind. But should it have? After all Paul, as a former Pharisee, would have known a passage like this from the Book of Psalms:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:11-12).

Even further, he was the one who himself wrote:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12-14).

Who was Paul to remember so vividly what God had put away? But let’s not stop there, because all of us are in this position at one level or another. We all have things from our past that still make us cringe when we think about them. Things we wish we could take back. Who are we to remember our sin when God has put it away through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

The answer is actually in the question. It is precisely because Jesus has born our sin that we can own our sin.

Owning our sin is not the same thing as bearing our sin. It is not feeling a sense of condemnation for the sinful acts we still commit. Nor is it trying desperately to earn our way back into God’s good graces. Jesus has taken care of those things already. Instead, owning our sin means acknowledging our sin without self-justification or equivocation.

It means we do not have to feel the need to offer a circumstantial explanation of why we were forced to do the wrong thing.It means we can freely apologize and ask for forgiveness without feeling the need to explain ourselves.It means we can humbly stand under the temporary consequences for our sin without feeling the need to escape.

It is a strangely beautiful thing to behold, a Christian who humbly acknowledges their sin and yet is not crushed by the weight of it. But such is the confidence of who knows they have been found, now and forevermore, in Christ and in Him alone. Yes, we all have a past. We all have sin that Christ has born the full weight of. And now we can stand up under it because we have been made new in Jesus.

1 Aspect of Heaven You Might Not Be Considering

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col. 3:1-4).

There is great value to think about what is to come. Though the things of earth grasp for our attention, we can make the choice, in faith, to look elsewhere. We can consider what God, in Christ, has laid up for us as our inheritance, and find that, as the song says, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”

There are certainly many aspects of heaven to occupy our attention. We can think of the new heaven and new earth; we can think of the lack of crying or tears or pain; we can think of the place Jesus has prepared for us; we can think of such joy that will make all the pain of the present day start to fade. And yet there is still more. More than enough to think about. But here is one aspect of heaven that you might not have considered:

Clarity .

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Cor. 13:9-12).

What characterizes the world in which we live? Confusion. Mistrust. Chaos. Or at least it seems so from our perspective. But it seems so because we have an extremely limited vantage point. Though we know by faith that God is in control, moving all things toward the recognition of the rule and reign of Jesus, we live now with a lack of clarity about how that’s happening. And not only that.

We also live with a lack of clarity about ourselves. Our motives, feelings, and inner thoughts are all corrupted by sin, and as a result, we often find a divide between what we know and what we feel. Or, perhaps even more common, we don’t actually know what we think and feel. And not only that.

We also live with a lack of clarity about God Himself. We know, to a limited extent, of His glory. His grace. His love. His omnipotence. But surely that knowledge is indeed limited. It is, as Paul states, a pale reflection of the reality. But not forever. Someday we will step through the looking glass into that which is more real than real. And we will see fully. We will know, even as we are known by God.

Yes, heaven promises all kinds of things. Reward, joy, eternal pleasure that makes the stuff of the world seem like children’s toys. And along with all those things, there is clarity. To fully know God and His ways. To see Jesus face to face. Now that’s something to consider.

2 Reasons Why We Should Be Patient With Everyone

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone (1 Thess. 5:12-14).

The older our children get, the more I realize how different they are. They have different interests, different personalities, and different struggles. And as a parent, it’s my job to not just discipline and instruct them, but to do so in a way that fits with who they are. I need to know my kids well enough to know not just what to say, but to know how to say it.

Similarly, as Paul closed his letter to the Thessalonians, he gave out some specific instructions for specific groups of people. While the letter is also full of generalized points, those broadly applicable to all the people in the church, here we find him drilling a little deeper and recognizing that there are different people with different personalities that need different kinds of instruction. There are, for example, those that work hard. Those people should be acknowledged and held in high regard for their work.

Then again, there are those who are idle and disruptive. Those people should be warned for their lifestyles so that they might persevere with the church in the faith. But there are also those who are weak and disheartened. They don’t need to be warned; they need to be encouraged. And so on.

But even here, in this rapid fire section of individualized instructions, we find something that applies to everyone:

Patient.

The Thessalonians were not to be patient with just a few people, but rather be patient with everyone. Be patient with the idle. Be patient with the disruptive. Be patient with the weak. Be patient with the disheartened. Be patient with everyone. And surely that instruction still applies to us.

There are many around us – around you – that might be difficult to be patient with. These are the frustrating people; the annoying people; the people who are difficult to be around at all. And yet we are to be patient with them, too. Why is that? Why should we still exercise patience with all? Here are two very good reasons:

1. Because God is working in you.

Patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. When we grow in things like love, joy, peace, patience and a host of others, it shows that God’s work is real and active inside us. But we should remember that we are not passive spectators to the work of God in us; rather, we are constantly doing the hard work of faith and surrender to His influence. What does that look like practically?

Well, we trust that God is working in us to make us patient, so we exercise patience. We do so despite the fact that the people around us might be difficult or argumentative or annoying… through faith. We believe in God’s work in us, and the result of that faith is exercising patience.

2. Because God is working in them.

In as much as God is working in us, He is also working in them. Those people that are hard to be around? Those people that are annoying? God is working in them, too, and He’s not done yet. Just as He’s not done yet with His work in us. No matter what group we come from, no matter what our personalities, and no matter what our struggles, the thing we have in common, if we are in Christ, is that we are on the same journey. God is working in us all, and moving us all toward Christlikeness. So we should be patient with those around us out of a recognition of that work. We should embrace that these people, along with us, are moving steadily, if not slowly, toward who God has made us to be in Christ.

Be patient with everyone, then. This patience is an act of faith in the work of God in us, and in all other Christians around us.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. God Does Not Despise the Small Things

Because God does not, we should not either. Don’t despair if you feel like little progress is being made in your life.

2. All Our Opinions, All the Time

Here’s a warning against feeling like you have to give your opinion on every event that happens every day.

3. Dying is But Going Home

I was so encouraged to read this from Randy Alcorn after the recent passing of his wife.

4. Jackie Robinson Was Better Than You Think

What a great article. What an amazing player as well as man.

What the Gospel Says to the Forgotten

Twelve years is a long time. Twelve years ago today, the number one movie in the world was Avatar. Our family had a two-year-old in it. Wikileaks had just dumped thousands of documents onto the internet. A lot can happen in twelve years.

But then again, nothing can happen in twelve years. That’s what it was like, I imagine, for the woman mentioned in Luke 8. She had been “subject to bleeding” for those years. It was a medical condition that had no doubt caused her great pain and shame, ostracizing her from a community who considered her unclean. Now I’m sure it wasn’t like that at the beginning. Verse 43 tells us that there had been attempts to help her. To heal her. But all had failed, and this woman had eventually been pushed to the side. She had been forgotten, relegated to just another part of the landscape, fading into the background.

What a terrible thing to be forgotten. In some ways, being forgotten is worse than being hated, because being forgotten means you are insignificant. At least hatred is a recognition of some kind of importance, even if that importance comes with revulsion. But when you are forgotten, you are considered to be of such little value that you are irrelevant. You are not worth remembering.

So this woman had lived in the shadows of forgetfulness for those twelve years, away from any sort of recognition. And she had settled into it. The account leads us to believe that she had accepted her position of irrelevance and even on that day was hoping for as little attention as possible. So instead of falling before Jesus, she snuck up in the throngs of people surrounding Him and reached out a trembling hand to touch the edge of his cloak. And then the miraculous happened: her bleeding stopped:

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Luke 8:45-48).

There was an enormous crowd of people, all pressing in on Jesus. No doubt he was being touched by scores of hands. And yet there was this one woman who was healed.

It reminds me of another scene when there was a crowd so large that one man had to climb a tree just to get a glimpse of Jesus. And Jesus turned his attention to that man, among all the others, and said, ““Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

Or another story, this one that Jesus told, about a shepherd who left the vast remainder of his flock to go and seek out the one single sheep that was lost (Luke 15:3-7).

And perhaps even today you might add your own story to this mix. You might have fallen through the cracks. The kids don’t call often. The relationships have dwindled. The only company you have is gazing into the lives of acquaintances on social media. And you feel it, too – that longing to be known. To be seen. To simply be remembered. And perhaps this morning you can take heart from this story of a woman who had pushed to the fringes.

What does the gospel say to those that feel forgotten?

It says that Jesus will come for you. Though no one else remembers, He does. He sees. He regards. He loves. Take heart, then, and know that Jesus loves to spend time on the fringes and check the nooks and crannies. And those he finds there he is pleased to make his brothers and sisters.

4 Reasons You Should Think About Heaven Today

What is the destination of the Christian life?

“Heaven, of course!” we would probably say. That’s where we’re going. That’s our trajectory. This train is after all bound for glory, this train . . .

But let’s not be too quick to answer that question. Or at least let’s not answer it without thinking about it. It’s true, heaven is where we’re headed. That’s where Jesus is now, and thank God, He’s preparing a place for us there, too (John 14:2-3). Once we are Christians, heaven is our true home, and we live in this world as strangers and aliens (1 Peter 2:11). Heaven is where death is swallowed up into life. Where justice is fully served. Where God’s reign is perfectly realized without exception.

In heaven, there’s no more need for Kleenexes. Or chemotherapy. Or funeral processions. Or good-bye’s. It’s where the streets are paved with gold and the eternal worship of a multitude of Christ-followers rings for all eternity.

Sounds pretty good.

But are all those attributes, good as they are, really what makes heaven heaven? The answer, maybe surprisingly, is no. Or at least, not exactly. Much like the reason why hell is hell is because it’s the realm where God is not, the reason why heaven is heaven is because it’s the realm where God is most fully realized.

Paul pointed to this reality in 1 Corinthians 13:12:

“For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.”

Amazing.

How fully known are we from God’s perspective? He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows our deepest thoughts and motivations, and they are laid bare before Him. He knows us, in fact, better than we know ourselves. He knows our past, present, and future. God knows us completely. Fully. Without exception.

No matter how hard we seek after the Lord here on earth, we will always see a refracted image of Him. The image will always be in some way distorted by our humanity. But in heaven? No distortions. Perfect and complete intimacy with God Almighty.

And that’s why heaven is heaven. It’s not the golden streets or the dried up tears. It’s not the reunion with relatives or the eternal worship services. Heaven is heaven because heaven is where we will really experience the fullness of joy that comes from knowing God. Jesus, too, pointed to this reality in John 17:3 when He described, in succinct form, what eternal life really is:

“This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ.”

That wonderful, unfiltered, perfect knowledge and intimacy of God is the essence of heaven. Our destination as Christians isn’t so much to a place; it’s to God Himself.

If indeed our destination is God, for He is the reason heaven is heaven, then the journey there begins in this life. It begins with practicing His presence in the here and now, seeking hard after the knowledge of Him. Becoming more intimate with Him each passing moment of each passing day.

Part of that process is turning our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection upon the realities of heaven. Paul especially was concerned that we think about heavenly things. He wrote in Colossians 3:1-3: “So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God.”

So here are a few reasons I see profit in spending regular time dwelling on heaven’s realities:

1. To keep us from loving our stuff.

There’s no trailers behind hearses; there’s no pockets in funeral suits. Heaven is better anyway, so do I really need a new shirt?

2. To provide hope.

God knows we need it. That’s what Paul did in Romans 8 – he held up his sufferings, which were quite alot, and said that the glory waiting for us makes these light afflictions pale in comparison.

3. To motivate us to action.

Heaven is a place where the rule of God is recognized fully and completely. And we are supposed to pray, and act, in such a way as to bring God’s will about on earth as it is in heaven. If we spent time thinking about how things will be, then we can be moved to change the way things are.

4. To remind us just who we’re dealing with.

C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory reminded us that “You have never talked to a mere mortal. It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.” Dwelling on heaven makes us realize the importance of the people around us. They are immortal, and they should be treated with respect and dignity.

Let’s dwell on what waits for us in faith. And little by little, we’ll see ourselves transformed into the kind of people who put away the things of the earth because of our overwhelming confidence in the greatness of God—that He is better than all else.

The Night Jesus Said We Must Be “Born Again”

The disciples were relaxing together one evening. They hadn’t been together long, but they had been together long enough to get into a rhythm of their life with Jesus. Throughout the day, He would teach, He would heal, and in so doing, He would make some people very happy and some people very angry. The disciples would watch and do their best to control the increasingly sizable crowds that seemed to flock out of nowhere to hear this new kind of rabbi.

The day had been like any other in this new routine, and yet the evening was interrupted by a knock at the door. The hour wasn’t that late, but it was late enough to make those in the room glance sideways at each other, wondering who would be calling.

Who went to the door? Maybe it was Peter—he was the first one out of the boat, and the first one to the door after all. He opened it up and then took a step back in surprise. A hooded figure stood there, obviously wanting not wanting to be seen. As he stepped across the threshold, he removed the hood from his head and exposed the face of perhaps the last person the disciples expected to see that night. It was Nicodemus, a Pharisee, one of the ones earlier in the day who had been hurling insults and challenging Jesus in His teaching. But gone was the look of confidence from his face; instead, he had the look of a frightened animal who has found himself in unfamiliar territory.

While the disciples were surprised, even shocked, at this appearance, it did not seem to rattle Jesus. It was almost as if He knew Nicodemus was coming.

Nicodemus knew a lot of things about Jesus; he had done his homework. And yet throughout his study not only of Jesus but also his lifelong pursuit of the law, something had come up lacking. He knew about Israel’s history. He knew about the law. And yet he had burning questions that only Jesus could answer: “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him” (John 3:2).

Jesus again was unrattled. His response was short and simple: “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

 Nicodemus was a bit confused, and so he responded with a further inquiry: “But how can anyone be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” (John 3:4).

Fair question. Nothing less dramatic would have to happen for life in Christ to begin. Jesus explained it like this:

“I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).

According to Jesus, entering the kingdom of God is being made new. That newness pervades everything about a person who has stopped knowing about Jesus, and truly started knowing Jesus. It is a complete transformation at the deepest levels of the heart.

Why must we be born again? It’s because we are hopelessly lost and dead in our sin. Those who come to Jesus, then, don’t find a causal association or a nominal friendship; they find that they are in great need of a heart level change that only Jesus can offer.

Because we live in a culture obsessed with self-esteem, the concept of sin is disagreeable. The popular message of the day is that happiness and contentment comes not in change, but in simply accepting who you are. The perceived fallacies and character flaws are really not flaws at all; they’re simply preferences and everyone’s preferences are okay. The world will finally be the great place it can be when we all accept that we are different, and that one person’s differences don’t mean they’re more right than any other.

That’s not what the Bible teaches.

Instead, we find a much more pessimistic view of humanity in the pages of the book that tells us our true stories. We all, regardless of our economic situation, nation of origin, or situational upbringing are dead in our sin and transgression. This is not just a result of our choices; it’s a reflection of our nature. We are, at the heart level, rebels to the cause of God. Our sinfulness is not just a function of our actions; it’s who we are (Eph. 2:1-4).

If we believe what the Bible says about us, we are not dying; we are dead. We are not in trouble; we are helpless. And we don’t need to have our lives realigned; we need to be born again.

That’s what it means to be saved.

The gospel doesn’t claim to help the weak; it claims to make the dead live again. It is only when we begin to see the true nature of the utter despair of humanity that we begin to see Jesus not as the key to a better life. Not as a sage only teaching about love. Not as a miracle worker only concerned with the alleviation of human suffering.

Jesus is our Rescuer. And, according to the Bible, He rescues from sin and death. Jesus jumps into the sea of sin and death and hauls our lifeless bodies to the shore. Then, He leans low, and breathes new life into us. What was dead lives. We are dead in sin, and that’s why we must be born again. Glory to God.

Wednesday Links

Four links to some things you might have missed, or at least ones that caught my attention this past week:

1. The Spiritual Discipline of Shutting Up

There are so many exhortations and commandments about speech in the Bible, and a whole lot of them tell us to just say less words.

2. Let Jesus Set You Free From People-Pleasing

Seeking approval from others is a prison that most of us live inside of. But we don’t have to.

3. Decision Time

There has been tremendous turmoil in the church in recent days, and if you’re thinking of leaving your own congregation right now, DON’T. Just stay put for a while longer.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster

We saw this being built a couple of years ago. Can’t wait to see it come together this month.

3 Things That Might Be at the Root of Your Anger

We have an ugly, old shed in our backyard. I don’t know how long it’s been there; certainly longer than we have. The shed came with the house, and with the house it remains. Over the years it has accumulated its share of junk, which of course, was added to the junk that was already in there. But I don’t open it up very often.

Because it’s scary. There. I said it.

Every time I crack open those doors, I have the sense that something is in there waiting for me. A snake. A gopher. Or, as was the case yesterday, a fresh nest of wasps. I could hear them as soon as I opened the door. They were presumably just hanging out in their own little realm behind those doors, but then the light and the fresh air came in and they immediately sprang into action. And they were mad.

Anger is like that, I think – not anger in wasps, but anger in human beings. Some circumstance fires up our temper and we find ourselves getting angrier and angrier, and often, our level of anger reaches a disproportionate level. We might even think to ourselves in the moment, I really should not be as mad as I am about this, but most of the time it’s too late. The fuse has been lit.

That circumstance – whatever it was – was like opening the doors of that old, broken down shed in the backyard. The light and the air and the noise come in, and the anger fires up. Thing is, though, I didn’t let the wasps in the shed by opening the door – the nest was already there. They just needed something to set them off. Likewise, if we find ourselves getting angry, chances are the anger was already in our hearts. The circumstance was just the thing that got us going.

So what, then, might be the nest of our anger? What might be at the root? Here are three possibilities:

1. Fear

Everyone is familiar with the “fight or flight” syndrome – that when we become afraid, most of the time we either run or become violent. Though we know that to be true, we often don’t have the ability in the moment to recognize it’s happening. Nevertheless, when something makes us afraid, one of the reactions we typically have is to fight. If that’s true, then one of the ways we can effectively deal with our anger is by recognizing what it is that is scaring us, and then bringing the promises of God to bear on that fear:

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
    In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4).

2. Insecurity

Another of those nests in our hearts is our insecurity. Much as we hate to admit it, there is still a middle schooler down deep inside of us. Every once in a while something happens that wakes that part of us up. We feel left out; disregarded; disrespected; neglected; picked last. And rather than digging that insecurity, we get angry. But if we can identify the source as personal insecurity, then once again God’s Word has something to say to us:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).

3. Self-Lordship

If we look deeper – beyond the circumstances – we might also find the true reason we get angry is because we feel like our rights have been violated. We should be treated better. We deserve more. Our anger stems from a deep held sense of entitlement that, when crossed, make us really, really mad. In other words, our anger is a reflection of our commitment to ourselves. And here, again, is an opportunity for us to grow, because every moment of anger precipitated by our own self-lordship is an opportunity to reaffirm what it means to follow Jesus:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).

Anger is real, friends, and because it is, it must be dealt with. For the Christian, that dealing is an opportunity. It’s a chance to look deeper. Further. And bring the gospel to bear on the deep parts of our soul.