Balancing the Ego & Soul

Balancing the Ego & Soul
by
October 04, 2024

I recently preached a sermon on the importance of humility because I believe it is a Christian virtue. If you read the gospels carefully, it appears that Jesus lived a humble life. But why is humility often lacking among so many Christians in today’s world?

Yes, we all want to be admired. We all want to be appreciated. We all want to be heard and respected. But pride and ego can so easily get in the way. Everything in our culture seems to be moving towards self-absorption and self-promotion. We hear, “Put yourself out there and show the world how great you are!”

C.S. Lewis famously referred to pride as a spiritual cancer that leads to many other problems. He also said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but only thinking of yourself less.” Humble people learn to move beyond self.

Spiritual growth and formation in our culture is not easy. The meritocracy of capitalism drives us to do more, make more, buy more, and be more. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working hard, achieving success, being compensated fairly, providing for your family, and building a better life. But remember, it’s the same desire to accomplish and achieve that keeps us restless and unsatisfied in our spiritual lives. We tend to neglect our soul.

In his book Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr talks about the ongoing struggle between the ego and the soul. He says “The primary philosophical and spiritual problem in the West is the lie of individualism. Individualism makes church almost impossible. It makes community almost impossible. It makes compassion almost impossible. Life is not about me; it is about God, and God is about love. When we don’t know love, when we don’t experience love, when we experience only the insecurity and fragility of the small self, we become restless.”

Restlessness is an ongoing spiritual problem for many today. People are restless with themselves. They are restless in their marriages. They are restless with their jobs. We address that sense of restlessness in a variety of ways – excessive eating, drinking, medicating, shopping, smoking, working, and worrying. These are symptoms of a much deeper problem that lies within.
Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount that it’s our inner attitudes and intentions that matter, what’s going on in the head and heart. When we neglect the soul, problems abound. Rohr says that many people today “live in a disenchanted universe without meaning, purpose, or direction.” That is very sad.

How can that be changed? Perhaps it starts with understanding that what satisfies the ego does not satisfy the soul. What keeps us relevant in the marketplace is not really what gives us deep meaning. Life must be about more than work. Life must be more than success. Life must be more than getting rich. Life must be more than climbing the social ladder. Life must be more than always being right. Maybe he who dies with the most toys, actually loses, especially if he is enjoying them alone? Human beings have done one heck of a job coming up with things to keep us busy, distracted, and feeling important, and perhaps that’s the problem. In our relentless attempt to feed the ego, the soul is often neglected. But the soul is what matters most.

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