What is wholeness?

The beginning of June saw the second annual ‘Every Woman’s Hope Conference’ which was on the topic of wholeness which has had me thinking ever since what do we mean when we talk about being whole.
 
Often we talk about having a ‘gap’ in our lives.
 
I read often how losing a loved one feels like we have a ‘gap’, how the breakdown in a relationship leaves a ‘hole’ or even how injury from a sport can leave an athlete with a space that needs to be filled.
 
But what do we mean by wholeness?

What do we consider whole and how can we be whole when we are surrounded by so much brokenness.
 
Just a few weeks ago I encountered a lady who, for whatever reason, was of the option that my husband and I not having children was not a whole life. The words she used were of defeat, giving in, not having enough faith and not being whole if we did not have children.
The details of the rest of the conversation are not important as the underlying idea of what makes us whole.
 
She could not see that in (her conceived idea of) my brokenness of not being able to have children I could still be whole and live out a live fulfilled to God’s glory. After all, the bible never tells us that being childless is bad, wrong, broken or otherwise. Yes, there are stories where God allows ‘barren’ women to conceive but there is nothing ever mentioned about them being broken in this aspect of their life. It is purely a world view that you are somehow lacking if this is your lot.
 
The bible tells us ‘with God all things are possible’ (Matt 19:26) which I truly believe. God is greater than my imagination, my will, my desire and my ability to grasp what he is saying, to name but a few.
 
He is also able to make us whole in whatever brokenness.
 
The bible also talks about peace which passes all understanding. The kind of peace that in the midst of all the things life can throw at us we still feel. It makes no sense. It is not of this world. The world reaction is of fight or flight but God can give us the peace which we cannot understand.
 
If can give us that then the God of all possibilities can make us whole in our brokenness.
 
But what do I mean?
 
I mean that in our ‘broken’ bodies, however that might manifest, for me it is a combination of medication conditions that makes life hard and children impossible (medically at least) but in that I can still be whole in Christ.
 
I can still life a life that brings Glory to him.
 
I might not live a life that world thinks of as successful, as in a fulltime well paid job that allows me to own a big house, fast car and 3 holidays a year and 2.4 children, but the bible also tells me ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world’ (Romans 12:2) and ‘Do not store up treasures on earth’ (Matt 6:19).
 
Our wholeness should not come from what the world tells us we need, how we should look, what we should strive to be, but from God.
 
A God who wanted to heal our broken world so much he sent his only Son to pay the price to bring us a different kind of wholeness. A wholeness that is another level of peace we can never ever understand.
 
We can be broken, the world can be broken, yet we are made whole in Christ.

This months article was written by Mrs Lydia Remick (Licensed Lay Minister)

Mrs Lydia Remick, LLM
Lydia is a Licensed Lay Minister for All Saints Church, has a passion for living and preaching the gospel, as well as being a keen supporter of Cornwall Roller Derby. She also runs her own Arts and Crafts business.