A Biblical Understanding of Flourishing

This episode looks at a Biblical view of flourishing through the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5:  "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

The understanding of the heart according to Professor Scott Redd "refers to the general cognitive and volitional capacities of the person.”  In other words, our thoughts, emotions, and desires or the psychologic aspect of our humanity.  The challenge is to recognize that our thoughts, emotions, and desires can be self-serving and frequently counterproductive to our own flourishing while harmful to others around us.  Replacing those with Godly thoughts, emotions, and desires is the pathway to flourishing.

Soul is not just spiritual but according to Professor Redd “speaks to the person, the self, perhaps the whole of the person as a person including the body.”  Thus, we have to love God with the wholeness of our being to include our bodies.  Viewing our bodies as God's gift to us should remind and challenge us to use our bodies wisely and with gratitude, and not to misuse or abuse them for our own self-centered desires.  

Finally, strength as Scott Redd says “should be thought of as ‘worldly effect’: the consequence of a person’s life, their relationships, influences, transactions, property, investments, and the like.”  This is the social dimension of our humanity which includes everything outside of ourselves in this world.  Work is an important part of our humanity that God placed us here for.  Work can either be creative echoing God's creative work in Genesis or redemptive (making things whole) as with Jesus' work where he healed bodies, restored relationships amongst people, and ultimately reconciled our relationship to God.  We must view all work in this world both chosen and unchosen as within God's will and useful for our growth and the building up of the Kingdom of God.  However, our emotions and desires get in the way, and need to be changed so that we see all things as an opportunity for God's Kingdom rather than an obstacle to our kingdom.  God's Word and short prayers such as the Jesus Prayer can be powerful for us to realize the situation in our lives as God sees it.  

References

The Wholeness Imperative: How Christ Unifies our Desires, Identity and Impact in the World by Scott Redd

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com