Walking with the Lord

“For You, O Lord, have saved my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk with the Lord in the land of the living” (NLV Ps. 116:8-9). For me, this is a clear definition of salvation. Under the influence of its naturally evolved impulses, brain-motivated people desire to be self-sufficient, as CS Lewis wrote, to “call their souls their own”—to find “some corner in the universe,” separate from what God wants (The Problem of Pain 75). These brain-driven natural desires cloud our vision with the limitations of evolutionary darkness. I think Jesus is distinguishing these two motivators, the goodness of our conscious spirit and the badness of the brain’s selfishness, when he says this: “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness (NLT Luke 11:34). To walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to experience the eternity of his larger life. To walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to experience the strength of his stronger life. And, to walk “with the Lord in the land of the living” is to know the radiant calm of his forgiveness and love. Now that is living. (Drawn from Living Strong, chapter 61, ©️ 2014)