CORE is the spiritual self. It is the essence of who you are. CORE is derived from the Latin word cor, which means heart. The Greek word for heart is Kαρδια (cardia). A Greek Lexicon defines Kαρδια as:
the centre and seat of spiritual life
the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours
of the understanding, the faculty and seat of the intelligence
of the will and character
of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or good, or of the soul as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions
of the middle or central or inmost part of anything, even though inanimate.
the centre and seat of spiritual life
the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavours
of the understanding, the faculty and seat of the intelligence
of the will and character
of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or good, or of the soul as the seat of the sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, passions
of the middle or central or inmost part of anything, even though inanimate.
A CORE Life would be living life from the heart. As Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Whatever is on the inside, affects the outside. Our live is lived from the "inside out."
Our core self affects our externals. Externals can affect our core self if it is weak. Our self image is reflected by our core. The journey to authenticity is striving to live life from the core. The antipathy of this would be to live life from our externals. If we do this, we are interacting with others from a false or constructed self.
One of the acronyms I use for CORE is Centered, Open, Relational, and Empowered. This acronym is a reminder of how to live a CORE life.
Centered - what or who is at the very center of my life?
Open - am I open to new ideas, information and the work of the Holy Spirit?
Relational - do my relationships reflect being Centered and Open?
Empowered - what is driving my life? What empowers me? Is it the Holy Spirit or the world?
Are you living a CORE life? Do your friends and family see the real you? If not, remember that God sees through all of the external and looks directly into our heart!
Authenticity is "what you see is what you get." Do you consider your self an authentic person?
2 comments:
This is something that I'm current working on. I thought I was living a CORE life until recently. Then, I discovered that I was not. Not even close. I realized that my life was managing me; I was living life in a constant "reactive" sense. A CORE life - living life from the heart - would be a pro-active life - motivated by our heart - not reacting to everything that happens or comes along without a sense of any control.
I've let people believe things about me that aren't true about me at all just because they are seeing symptoms of something even worse - that I would rather them not see - does that make sense?
Melanie,
Great observations! We should should not care what other people think, right? I know there must be a community of believers where everyone is accepting of each other and non-judgemental. The kind of community where we "confess our sins one to another."
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