The Gift of Being Fully Alive

A Return to Spiritual Health

Recently, I shared with our community about some personal changes that have brought me back to a place where I feel spiritually grounded. I’ve stopped drinking, started working out more consistently, and become more intentional about my diet. These physical shifts have helped me reconnect with the sacred in my everyday life. I’m hearing from God again, in new and deeper ways.

But before I show you that clip, I want to talk about something that often underpins how we think about this stuff: dualism.

Beyond the Mind-Body Split

In Greek and Western thought, there's a persistent idea that who we truly are lives up here—in our minds—and that our bodies are just vessels. Temporary, utilitarian. But I think that kind of thinking misses something important.

First, it can lead us to believe that what really matters happens after we die. If our bodies just decompose, then maybe it's only our souls or spirits that have worth. But that betrays the incredible gift of embodied life. Every breath you take is grace. Every moment your body carries you through this world is sacred.

Second, dualism undercuts the truth that we are whole beings. Your mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical health—they’re all bound up together. You can’t separate them and still be honest about what it means to be human.

A Holistic Imagination

You are not a mind trapped in a body. You are a constellation—a beautiful, integrated expression of body, mind, and spirit. And when we start to think of our lives this way, we return to a more ancient and holistic imagination. One that echoes through the Hebrew scriptures and is embodied in the teachings of Jesus.

It’s not about perfection. We all have areas where we’re thriving and others where we’re struggling. But healing begins when we stop compartmentalizing and start seeing ourselves as whole.

Breath and Body in Ezekiel

There’s this incredible moment in the book of Ezekiel. The prophet sees bones come together. Tendons appear. Muscles grow. Skin wraps around them. But they’re still lifeless.

So God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath. And when he does, the breath enters them—and they live.

This isn’t Greek dualism. Hebrew thought didn’t separate body and spirit like that. The passage doesn’t suggest we’re ghosts in machines. Instead, it insists that to be human is to be both embodied and enlivened. We need both.

You don’t climb out of a dark place just by thinking better thoughts. Your body matters. Your habits matter. Your physical rhythms shape your spiritual awareness.

Taking Steps Toward Life

During the pandemic, like many of us, I picked up some habits that weren’t great. For a long time, I wasn’t caring for myself the way I needed to. But as I began to feel more like myself again, I realized that continuing on that path meant making real changes.

I stopped drinking. I started exercising more. I paid closer attention to what I ate—not to restrict calories, but to make sure I was actually getting enough nourishment. And all of that physical care helped me reattune to the voice of God in my life.

We all have different bodies, different limitations, different capacities. But when we ignore the physical, it becomes harder and harder for Spirit to breathe into us.

More Than Habits—A Story to Live Into

And yet, this isn’t a self-help sermon. You can eat clean, exercise daily, and do all the "right" things—and still not find your way out of the pit.

Because for all the muscles and sinews and skin Ezekiel saw, they weren’t alive until breath—until Spirit—entered them.

I believe that every breath we take is animated by God. That the very act of being alive is a gift. But I also believe that what sustains us isn’t just effort. It’s story.

Hope is the story that carries us forward. Joy is the sense that there’s purpose behind the beating of our hearts. That purpose doesn’t need to be dramatic. It can be as simple as being kinder than you were last week. More patient. More generous.

But when that purpose feels like it comes from beyond you, when it animates your body and your spirit—then I believe joy can heal dry bones and breathe life into every part of who you are.

Thanks for staying with us. If you’re curious about the kind of community we’re building here at Commons, we’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation on Discord, or just drop a comment. Let’s keep walking this way of Jesus together.