Are You Whole?

“It wasn’t until I was finally single at 62 that I began to feel whole.”-Jane Fonda in Five Acts Documentary

It wasn’t until I had made multiple commitments to different men and broken them selfishly that I began to feel whole. It wasn’t until I could do what I wanted when I wanted that I felt whole. It wasn’t until I had only to think of myself that I felt whole.

Is the feeling of being whole actually wholeness? What makes some people feel “whole” may, in fact, be brokenness, and what feels broken to many may, in fact, be wholeness.

To be whole means to be fully human. To be fully human, we must live with and follow the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made commitments that were painfully difficult to keep. He made friends with people He knew would, at the very least, deny Him if not abandon and sell Him. He washed the feet of those closest to Him that He knew would harm Him most deeply. He forgave their transgressions against Him repeatedly and never pushed them away. He is the wholly perfect human, and to be like Him and carry our crosses as He has called us to, we are called to do the same.

This means keeping our commitments, no matter how difficult that may be, and no matter how imperfectly we, or those with whom we are committed, carry them out. Even if we are betrayed again and again as Jesus was, we are, to the best of our ability, by God's grace, to forgive and continue with the commitment as Jesus did.

“Whole” for many seems to mean being selfish. Doing what makes us feel good, what we believe in, and only that. If someone helps the poor, feeds the hungry, and protects the abused only because they want to and it makes them feel good, but neglects the responsibilities they have to those to whom they have committed their life, are they really someone we should look to as someone to guide us into “wholeness”?

Jesus Christ and those who follow His example and Word are the only example of the whole we can look to.

Human-Written, AI Spell-Checked 4/3/21 AD

Image from famousfix.com