01.23.09
All of me
We hear a lot of ministering to the whole person. There is a desire to feel complete in our pursuit of life. Yet many of us feel that sense of something that is missing. These kinds of voids are felt in our lives. They nag at us and tear at the joy in our lives.
I am experiencing a time in my life where I am facing a tremendous amount of change in my life. So of these changes have been self imposed or self inflicted and others have been thrust upon me. It is in this condition, I feel the anxiety of life pressing in upon me. Yet how I react to these things is reflective of how well I am dealing with these stressors in my life. I wish I could tell you that I am having no problems dealing with these things, but inevitably I cannot.
Into this situation, I came across the work and ministry of Jonathan Brink and Thrive Ministries . He talked about the search for wholeness through our relationship with Christ. How that is a shared journey. How we need to address our own brokenness through our relationship with our God and with those fellow believers around us. I realized how true that is. How so far of the mark in many ways I myself am. I find myself anxious and fearful and resentful and angry about things going on in my life when in reality all I am truly doing is trying to protect myself and my own brokenness. In protecting myself I am cutting myself off from that which can truly make me whole. The sad thing is that I and many others do these things because we think we are protecting ourselves.
I think of several passages in the Gospel of John that really illustrate this for me. The first is John 14:27
I leave you peace, my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don’t let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
And again in John 15: 5, 11-13
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…… I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
I have someone I love very much that I almost lost because I tried to protect myself and be apart from relationship. It was only when I truly stepped out in love disregarding the possible consequences that I was able to overcome my brokenness and reach this person again. I guess this is my own journey that I am making to get back to the wholeness that we all want.
