I have been pondering the duality of humanity lately. It seems as if is a function of the human condition to be angry and frustrated even though we may think of ourselves as calm and rational. I was out with a friend, Julia, last week, driving the main highway into town, and we were discussing this topic. She told me she thought of herself as a calm and logical person. A few minutes later she drove up behind a very slow person in the the left hand, passing lane.  She started to mutter to herself and then out loud, telling me how much she hated people who did this; slowed the traffic down because they did not know the rule- “Keep right except to pass”.  She tailgated the car for a few kilometers and then passed on the right, shaking her fist at the driver as we drove alongside! Then as she settled in to driving again, she turned to me and said, “Where were we, oh yes, I think I am a calm and logical person and I would rarely lose my temper or act irrationally!” I could only stare with an open mouth! How could she consider herself rational after her display of frustrated fist shaking?  

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31 (NIV)

Alter Ego

We all have within us an alter ego which is all too ready to display our baser, animal self. This other self can appear in the middle of a fight when you say something terrible which you almost instantly regret.  He is responsible  whenever you cry yourself to sleep over something completely irrational and unnecessary. Have you ever woken in the middle of the night and squirrel-caged the same issue or problem over and over and over with no result? That was the animal self at work.

Natural Man and Spiritual Man

The animal self is a product of the limbic brain. Our brains are constructed of many different parts all hopefully working together to harmonize and protect our existence. There are several distinct parts which affect our behaviour and personalities; the limbic, parietal and frontal. Another way to look at these is to divide them roughly into two; the natural man, (you at your worst) and the spiritual man (you at your best). The natural man is the the personality component within you which is most clearly related to our animal side, and the spiritual man is the one most clearly related to our intellectual, thoughtful side. Natural man has several characteristics which can sidetrack our behaviour. He is responsible for anything emotional and irrational, anything which protects our interests and anything which satisfies our cravings. You can recognize your natural man in action when you are angry, frustrated, defensive, competitive, panicked, anxious, grumpy, in short whenever you are not really impressed with your behaviour! Spiritual man is magnanimous, logical, analytical, and mostly concerned with facts and truth. You know your spiritual man is in charge when you are calm and relaxed, your voice is quiet and you are not rushed.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

Cultivate the Spiritual Man

We want to present our spiritual man to the world, we want to be known for this better half, not the other half, the fist shaking half. It takes work to cultivate the spiritual man, and it is this man whom the bible advocates. We must learn to work with the natural man, because, unfortunately, natural man is very powerful and we cannot hope to control him; too many years of  conditioning to undue! Besides, God made us with both aspects of our humanity intact! The best tool we have in this process is prayer. If we maintain a constant and open channel with the Holy Spirit, then we can have endless support in this process.  

Don’t Ignore the Natural Man

It is important to remember that though we cannot be controlled by natural man, we ignore our him at our peril. Natural man is essential to our survival! He will alert us to danger of every kind and keep us vigilant and aware. He tells us when we need to eat and sleep, he warns us that others do not have our best interests at heart; he protects our best interests.  Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the effects of natural man in his book Blink, a nonfiction account of our automatic responses to life events. He tells the story of a Fire chief who saved the lives of his firefighters by suddenly ordering them out of a burning building moments before it collapsed. He listened to the promptings of his natural man. Remember, God made us this way for a reason. The solution is to work with and manage our natural man, but not let him manage or control our responses. Learn to recognize your natural man, and cultivate your spiritual man.

   Now we pray to God that you will not do anything that is wrong-not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed 2 Corinthians 13:7

God’s Help

The best of who we are meant to be is our spiritual man. Unfortunately this world and the society we live in conditions us for the natural man and yet admires the spiritual man. Before we are aware of it, our natural man has hijacked us and we are bragging, arguing, or shaking our fists! Cling to the best you were meant to be, be diligent in your prayer, recognize your natural man in action and learn to manage him. I am daily trying with as many failures as successes, but I believe life will be more pleasant as a calm and rational being, my spiritual nature in control, the best of who I am facing each day, with God’s help.