The Wholeness of Who We Were Meant To Be

5.15.23

 

One of the most interesting things about living on this earth at this time is that only God knows where we are going or what will happen to us. We live as if our plans and agendas will happen, but are often disappointed by what actually happens. That’s because we are not in charge of our lives, God is. And he is making things happen or allowing them to happen to us that will not fulfill our desires, but will be part of the transforming work that He offers us here in the world. We can complain all we want about not getting what we want, but the fact is that our ideas of our identity are very limited in scope—only God can see what we truly need to become the kind of person He created us to be.

 

We have been taught what the world, especially our culture, sees what we should do and be, add to that what our parents taught us, and our own limited take on all of our experience—we have no idea of what our potential is. And, in this culture, we are supposed to be very mind-oriented, planning and going after the best job we could get, the most money we could make, the biggest house we could buy, etc., but what do we find in doing this? We have to buy more and more things, because nothing in the material world can actually satisfy us.

 

So, there we are caught in the trap that our human world has conceived for us. But it will never satisfy or fulfill us. Just look at how many people, after working at home for a year or two with more time on their hands because of no commuting as a result of Covid-19, suddenly were changing jobs and careers when they had time to really evaluate how much they liked what they were doing and when all kinds of courses and possibilities were available on line, easily accessed in the extra time that was suddenly available to them.

 

What is there beyond the mind and its abilities? Our hearts and souls and bodies all have wisdom for us if we would only access it. When I think that Americans are unwilling to look at the trauma they have experienced or have inherited, or the truth of our history, this is where the expression of all the grief that we deny can free us of having to protect ourselves from the fear of it happening again.

 

When I think of how the heart connects us, if it is free to do so, to others so deeply, as we were all created to be in close communities with each other. Since we were first on this earth humans have lived in tribes or small communities, now in large cities, but still we are designed to connect deeply to each other, to depend on others for health, belonging, love, inspiration, and safety, to enjoy and to live into the connectedness.

 

If that’s the heart’s role, then what does the soul create for us? Beyond the physical world, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit live. There is a place that we can live into that will give us the sense of what life is meant to be and to show us the value of a spiritual life through prayer and meditation that brings us to a deeper understanding of what life is and what the Spirit of this world is to us. It takes us out of this world and connects us to God, to the larger reality.

 

So, what about the body? What is its contribution other than giving our mind, heart, and soul a way to live physically in this world? The body is a highly sensitive organ that registers just what is going on in our hearts and minds and souls and bodies as signals for redemption and healing and transformation, too. Every challenge in this world has some meaning for us. Each illness, each hurt can teach us more depth as we see what is happening and try to work out what it means for us. If I am troubled by headaches, then what is my body trying to say to me? or if constipated or overweight or sick or have pains anywhere, we could ask what does this mean I am to do. There is a book by an American psychiatrist, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, titled, “The Body Keeps the Score.” He is mostly writing about trauma and the challenges in our lives, but I think it applies to everything that happens to us. Every ache and pain has a symbolic meaning as well as being a physical problem for us, if we will bring our hearts and souls and minds to discern what the body is highlighting for us.

 

What I am writing about today expands how we think about our lives here on earth and how much broader and more interesting our lives will be with this additional knowledge than what we have made of our lives. That’s the true value of our hearts and souls and bodies—the ability to go way beyond what the world teaches as the truth about our lives and what our potential really is. If we’re willing to look beyond the material world, the limited purpose it offers us, and see how limited the mind actually is, we can really see the world opening up for us, our lives taking on new colors and opportunities, and in all this lies the fulfillment that is there for us when we are willing to go beyond what the world can see. This is what following Jesus can mean in our lives, if we will put Him first in our lives.

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Questions to ponder over the week: Am I in touch with the wisdom of my heart and soul and body, as well as my mind? Or am I still just a captive of the material world? What would it take for me to value the contributions of all four parts of me? Am I willing to do that?

 

Blessing for the week: May we be the people of God who are in touch with the wisdom of all the parts of my being, the spiritual as well as the physical and the heart and the mind. May we be true followers of Christ, bringing our whole selves to Him.

 

Check out my two websites: patsaidadams.com and deepeningyourfaith.com.

 

Two Announcements

1. I am giving away a 10-week journaling guide to Jesus’s Two Great Commandments. If you are interested, email me at patsadams@gmail.com and I will email it to you, free of charge.
2. My latest books, “Called to Help the Poor and Needy” and “A Study Guide to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount” are now in bookstores and on line. The first is about the more than 2,000 verses in the Bible which detail God’s instructions for caring for those in need. The second is a journaling/pondering guide to Jesus’s most complete sermon.