“Look after each other’s best interests, not your own. This is how you should think among yourselves — with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus:
Who, though in God’s form, did not
Regard his equality with God
As something he ought to exploit.Instead, he emptied himself,
And received the form of a slave,
Being born in the likeness of humans.And then, having human appearance,
He humbled himself, and became
Obedient to death,
Yes, even the death of the cross.And so God has greatly exalted him…"
— Philippians 2:4-9a (Kingdom New Testament)
It was a cool, lightly grey winter evening, and I was buzzing with an electric warmth that belied my surroundings. We had just finished the final night of Bang Bang, You’re Dead, the opening play on the LSE Drama Society’s calendar that academic year. I had had a great time soaking in the accomplishment with the rest of the cast, but it was getting late, and I needed to head home.
Although I was walking back to my hall of residence alone, I knew God was present with me. I had felt so alive standing on stage, inhabiting “Michael” (second from left in the photo above). That sensation continued to pulsate through my body and enliven my existence in the dusk hour; I could spend the rest of my life dwelling in that space.
“Why not, God? Why not live here? Is this something I could do forever?” I asked both excitedly and with a hint of trepidation, like a little boy showing his parents the stray puppy he had just found on the street, and desperately longed to keep.
“Of course, my son! I am so pleased with you. There is a reason you feel so free on stage: I made you for it.”
Peace and affirmation flooded my body from head to toe. If I had been buzzing before, I was on fire now. God was good — so, so good.
An Age-Old Question
Fast forward to today, and I must admit I have spent very little time on a theatrical stage since that conversation with Jesus: the last time I was part of a proper production was the LSE Drama Society’s Macbeth, in 2017/18, my final year of uni (I also directed The Importance of Being Earnest that year).
I suppose you could count The Hidden and a few “extras” appearances in a couple of friends’ short films as a sort of “stage time” (plus a wonderful experience on the National Youth Theatre’s Masterclass in Acting for Screen), but the truth is that I am hardly worth the IMDb page one of those director-friends credited me on; I was as shocked as you probably are to discover it even exists.
Nevertheless, the dream remains, and God has continued to speak from the time of Bang Bang You’re Dead until now. Perhaps the most pressing question He’s asked — one that comes up time and again in our chats is, “Are you willing to be in a supporting role?”
At first, I interpreted this question very literally: I pictured myself walking onto the Oscars stage to accept the award for Best Supporting Actor, mock surprise on my face and manicured speech in waving hand. I was more than willing to lay hold of that mental image.
The irony of that desire is that it was still self-centred: it was all about me receiving an accolade rather than bringing out the best in others (“supporting”). Thankfully, God was more interested in changing my mind over time than smiting me for my flawed belief in the moment.
As I mentioned in “I have a dream…” the Holy Spirit has spoken very clearly and kindly about my role as a writer and storyteller in the Kingdom, most directly through Psalm 45:1. The more I have pondered this role, and the more doors spontaneously opened for me to help others tell their stories, the more I have seen how that narrative thread was in many ways complementary and even equivalent to God’s question.
In the first verse of the Psalm, the Sons of Korah state very clearly who their poetry is for: “…I recite my verses for the king // My tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.” They go on to describe this majestic, noble king and his beautiful, glorious and embroidered bride in the proceeding lines.
In short: although they were active witnesses to the occasion, they understood that it was not about them, but the main actors in the Royal wedding feast. Their job was simply to use their gifts to praise and honour, and to record this memory for the generations to come (c.f. v.17).
Affirming Life on Earth
I am no Ancient Near East linguist, but there are a few words I have researched and feel strongly about now that I’ve learned their true meaning. One such word is “nephesh” (Ancient Hebrew) and its New Testament equivalent “psuche” (Koine Greek). In English Bibles, this word is often translated “soul.”
The BibleProject’s Tim Mackie was instrumental in showing me how the philosophical idea of an “immortal soul” has nothing to do with the Biblical view of the “living soul.” Perhaps the most concise definition I can offer that does accord with the Old Testament concept is: “the totality of a living, flesh-and-blood being, inclusive of their unique personality and physical body.”
Notice the enfleshed language. The Biblical “soul” would be nonplussed at the idea of “leaving the body and heading off to a flowery, ethereal higher realm.” Instead, we have Plato and, later, Origen, to thank for the popularisation of that rather unhelpful disembodied>embodied, soul>body hierarchy in Western religious thought.
Now, this is important for our purposes because, in Jesus’ time, people read the Old Testament (“OT”) in the form of what was called the Septuagint. This collection of OT scrolls was written in Koine Greek, the common language of the people. Thus, when Jesus and the disciples quoted the OT scriptures, they were quoting from these manuscripts. In those, you would see the word “psuche” (Koine Greek) where “nephesh” would otherwise sit in the original Hebrew.
SO: when Jesus teaches about the “psuche” in his public ministry, He is almost certainly doing so with an OT-informed understanding of that term, especially as it features over 700 times in the OT. And besides, He is the “Anointed One” in whom all of those OT scriptures find their fulfilment.
Putting ‘Psuche’ into Practice
The example I want to talk through today that uses this word (nephesh/psuche) — is Mark 8:35-37, which reads:
“For whoever wants to save their [psuche] will lose it, but whoever loses their [psuche] for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their [psuche]? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their [psuche]?”
You might recognize these verses from what I would argue is their common misuse; i.e. promoting the if you believe in Jesus as Saviour now then your “soul” will go to heaven when you die message.
There are several problems with this interpretation of Jesus’ words, not least when you consider what I laid out in the section above: that the nephesh/psuche primarily refers to your living, physical existence, and does not carry with it any inherent “afterlife” implications (that is a separate conversation).
When you read Jesus’s words through this lens, you can see that He is actually saying something like:
“I have come that you might have life, and have it to the absolute limit on earth!
If you would just follow me and my other-focused example, putting aside what you thought you wanted, I will show you a life with a different hope and trajectory to those stuck in the destructive, dreary ‘way of the world.’
The life I’m offering is one full of meaning and purpose; one in which you and those you around you can truly be free.”
(Again, does any of that sound familiar?)
If Adam and Eve threw our earthly existence into turmoil in the first few pages of the Bible, Jesus stepped in to restore what it meant to be made in the image of God, to walk through life with God, and then some! And that’s where the question, “Are you willing to be in a supporting role?” finally fits.
The twist of the song in Philippians 2, which I highlighted at the beginning of this letter, is that after all the horror, pain and sacrifice Jesus endured on our behalf, the Father raised Him from the dead and up to His right hand, where He is alive and praying for us even now (in his physical, resurrection body).
Precisely because Jesus supported and freed those around Him — indeed, took the burdens of every single person ever on himself, that they might all be free — the Father did not abandon Him to the grave but instead lifted Him up, and gave Him a life that could never be destroyed.
And in Jesus’ parting command to those that know Him today — “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” — you can see an invitation into the same death-to-life paradigm: that in loving one another like He first did, we would allow the Father to bring His good purposes for our lives to completion.
The Paradoxical Purpose of Supporting Others
I may yet perform wholeheartedly on a theatrical stage — my nephesh jumps at the thought — but even if I am not in that position now, I know that the point of God’s question was to make me more like His Son Jesus: to more fully unveil His image in me.
So whatever I am doing, I ask myself, “Who am I doing this for?” If the answer is, “For and with Jesus, and for the good of those He has placed me amongst,” then I know I’m on the right track. I also know that when I’m choosing this Way of Life, the Father opens doors that help me to help others.
Take, for instance, two encouraging moments from the close of 2023 (when I was praying about what I should be doing in the US, after the main freelance contract I had ended suddenly):
In November, Derek Kelly, head of Clearsound Consulting, a branding and marketing consultancy in PA, called me up to let me know he’d been praying for me and wanted to offer me a job writing articles for his company, if I was willing and open to it. I have been writing one blog post a week for them since then, and it looks like there might be even more work on the horizon: work that involves helping even more of their clients to tell their stories.
In December, Christ John Otto, a friend I met in London in July 2022 through a mutual friend from Pittsburgh, reached out to ask if I might be able to help him edit his 12th book, Artists at a Shift in Time: Courage in an Age of Conflict and Change. It was a fun process working through the manuscript with him over Christmas and the New Year, and I’m delighted to say Christ’s book is now availabe for sale worldwide (link in postscript)!
In neither example did I try to make the circumstances about me, or to force open an opportunity of my own making; God simply opened the door for me to work with and bless others (and be blessed in return). The same has been true for all the creative writing, editing and interviewing work I have done since 2020: all of it has been by invitation, and all of it has been immensely purposeful, not to mention humbling and undeserved.
The final observation I will share with you today is that through each of these invitations, I have grown closer to God and to people, and therein found my “psuche.” Despite repeated question marks from friends and family about my decision not to pursue a lucrative legal career (the normal way of the world), I have been blessed to get to know people on a deep level, hear their hearts, and be a small part in bringing their stories to life. I could not have imagined this kind of life six years ago, when I graduated from LSE, but I can say thank you to the One who did, and who, even now, is writing a majestic poem that I long to read to its conclusion.
I would go so far as to say: this is something I could do for the rest of my life (psuche).
P.S.
For those of you interested in supporting the friends I have made along the way, why not check out the links below? A little love goes a long way!
Christ John Otto’s Artists at a Shift in Time: Courage in an Age of Conflict and Change
Ingram Spark (US — best for author royalties): https://bit.ly/IngramSparkAAASIT
Amazon (US): https://amzn.to/49fk74L
Amazon (UK): https://amzn.to/3I4F0U8
Clearsound Consulting’s (Derek’s company) YouTube channel (I happened to feature in the most recent podcast episode):
For those of you interested in diving deeper into the Biblical meaning of the words “nephesh” and “psuche,” here’s a great introductory resource:
And as a final bonus for those of you who have read this far, here’s one of my favourite articles — which happens to be connected to the theme of this Letters from…: