In the Harry Potter novels, author J. K. Rowling has the dark wizard Lord Voldemort divide his soul into seven “pieces,” each instilled into a magical object known as a “horcrux”. Voldemort believes that by doing so he can escape death even if his body was killed. But unbeknownst to the dark wizard, his secret plan has been exposed, and the story’s heroes are systematically destroying each of the objects that preserve his soul.
It is as if Rowling was trying to illustrate Jesus’s warning, “Whoever wants to save his life (psyche, soul) will lose it…” (Matthew 16:25). In the stories, each horcrux of Voldemort’s is destroyed and the dark wizard finally loses what is left of his soul. But even before his death, Rowling lets her readers see how the man with the riven soul diminished himself and has been left ruined.
Is it possible that we might share Lord Voldemort’s ability to divide our souls? I think it is, and we can divide them many more times than seven, and we needn’t use magic to do it. (Rowling, by the way, has made it clear that she does not believe in magic.) When we divide our souls, there is simply less of us available in the moment.
How do we divide our souls? We do not need incantations or dark magic (at least, not as usually understood). All we need to do to divide our souls is worry.
Worry is also something that Jesus warned us about. The verb “to worry” appears 19 times in the New Testament, with 12 of those uses coming from Jesus himself, usually in the form of an instruction: “Do not worry.”
You might think, “Well, what did they have to worry about? I’m the one who is piling up a mountain of debt. I’m the one who hasn’t worked for eight weeks, and who knows when I will get called back? I’m the one who needs to think of something to say to my angry neighbor the next time he yells at our kids for going into his yard.”
When Jesus instructed his disciples not to worry, he was talking to people who had troubles just like you, and maybe even more pressing. He told people with real food insecurity not to worry about where they were going to get their next meal. He told people with only one full set of clothes not to worry about what they were going to wear. He told people who had been arrested because of their faith not to worry about what they were going to say when they stood before the court.
Jesus understood something about worry that we do not. He understood that worry divides your soul, leaving less of you available at any given moment. In his brilliant Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples. “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). He goes on to say that even though other people are constantly occupied with (running after) these things, his disciples should exert their effort elsewhere: on seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness.
When Jesus says, “Do not worry,” the verb used is derived from a word that means “to divide.” A literal translation goes, “Do not worry your soul.” Worry cuts the soul in pieces. Fears over money take a slice, concern for mother-in-law’s opinion takes another, apprehension over a child’s health diminishes the soul even further. Without realizing it, we are losing our souls, not in the judgment to come but in uncertainties that are already here.
Jesus would save us from all this and make us whole. But that will require us to trust his Father, “throw our worries on him” (see 1 Peter 5:7 and Psalm 55:22), and pour our energy seeking into his kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33). How to seek his kingdom and righteousness is a subject for another time. For now, it is enough to say that it is possible to so invest ourselves in God’s kingdom that our souls are restored (Psalm 23:3) and our worries – our or penchant for worrying – is overcome.
The Way Home 
Leave a comment