Finding Spiritual Wholeness

“Separation from God is quite literally what the fall is...mankind slipped from ‘God-consciousness’ to the hell of self and self-consciousness.”

— Leanne Payne

Wholeness shattered

From the Christian perspective, God is perfectly whole — or Holy.  We are created in His image and therefore created to be whole.  When “sin” (That which is against God’s character) entered the world, so did our brokenness, along with our broken ideas about how we view ourselves, God and others.  There is an intuitive knowledge of our personal brokenness that we are constantly attempting to fix, deny or protect.  We know it should not be like this.    

broken perception

For the Christian, at the core, what we need is not more.  At the core what we need, we already have - Jesus.  Yet we strain and strive, looking for something to fill us.  The destructive power of our sin is that it creates a distortion of our spiritual vision, causing us to stumble and grope through life leaving a trail of brokenness behind.   

• Sin perverts our perception of God:

  • God is angry with me - “He hates my sin, he must hate me.”

  • God is disgusted with me - "I’m too dirty and damaged for Him to accept me”

  • God is distant from me - “Why would he want to be with me when I’m like this?”

  • God is unfair - “This is just one big setup...I couldn’t stop if I tried.”

  • God is unhappy - “All the fun things are off limits!”

• Sin warps our self-perception: 

  • We become foolishly great in our own eyes when we hide from the reality of our sin, like the emperor with no clothes.

  • We become worth - less in our own eyes when we become hyper-focused on our sin.

• Sin degrades or elevates (to unhealthy levels) our perception of others: 

  • We tend to do the same thing with other people that we do with ourselves - We make them out to be greater or less than we are.  We serve them like gods or treat them like dogs.

Our sin is against God - yes, but who does it really damage?  Sin brings disintegration of self while righteousness (living congruently with the character of God) brings integration of self or spiritual wholeness.  This is one reason God hates sin so much - He doesn’t want our disintegration because He loves us!  It must be said that any and all “righteous living” apart from God doesn’t get us to wholeness, it gets us to self-righteousness - a horrible dis-ease that many Christians live with, and perpetrate on others. 

Complete Spiritual Wholeness

Spiritual wholeness is not dependant on our actions, but on an acceptance of God’s acting on our part in the life/death/resurrection of Christ.  Because of our faith in Christ and what He’s done on our behalf, God is able to pronounce us whole and, remain a just God even though we often go on acting broken.  We accept His declaration by faith and therefore try to live in accordance with our identity as one who is “spiritually whole” (failing along the way).  Thankfully our failure in no way disqualifies His permanent declaration of wholeness over us.  This is because spiritual wholeness is given to us based on the merit of Christ and not on our own merit.  

“For in Him (Jesus) the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily, and in Him you have been made complete.”

— Colossians 2:9,10a

For the Christian, it is vital to fully receive our identity as spiritually whole and accepted in Christ.  If we do not, our connection with God is not severed, but our perception of connection with Him will be, which becomes the real problem.  We were not created for obedience to God - He already accomplished obedience for us.  We were created for loving connection and relationship with Him.  Obedience is helpful because it increases our awareness of His love for us, and makes us more like Him.  ”Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  Matt 5:8

If you and I were somehow able to fully and permanently experience the fullness of God’s love we would never want for anything again.  We currently possess this love and acceptance, we just have a hard time experiencing it.  One day we will know what it is like to fully experience it.  For now, we can bask in the delight of Christ knowing that He has pronounced us whole!

- Josh Grover MA, LMHC

What is Wholeness?

 In the world of psychology and mental health, we are really good at defining what is wrong with us,  but what does it look like to be right, healthy, or whole?  Would we know it if we saw it?  Are there degrees of wholeness?  Does wholeness look the same for you as it does for me?  

Wholeness is a complex issue because it involves all of what makes us human - Mind, body, soul, emotions and relationships.  None of these can be scientifically studied in a vacuum, put under a microscope or dissected.  You may argue that we can dissect the body and look at it on a molecular level, and you’d be right.  Does this give us accurate or complete information about how the body interplays with the soul or emotions?  I’m not so sure.

“Wholeness is our capacity to experience health as transcending all limitations while accepting them, overcoming this virus of perfectionism which keeps us locked into an imaginary world rather than the real world...it is paradoxically in accepting (limitations) that we can transcend them.”

— Laurence Freeman

The Mindset of Wholeness

Because the subject of wholeness is so immense, I’d like to start by considering just 3 parts of what it means to be whole: 

1. How we see ourselves - The whole person is able to see themselves truthfully and accept his/her limitations as well as areas of personal excellence.  This requires relational feedback and personal reflection.  The whole person doesn’t only see themselves in a positive light.  They are able to see their flaws, idiosyncrasies  and sin.  Rather than self-condemnation in their shortcomings they are able to embrace themselves with acceptance and grace.  The whole person also recognizes that they have blind spots.  They are committed to self-compassion and curiosity in the areas of the unknown.  For some people, accepting the negative is easy but it’s more difficult to accept the good. The whole person is able to integrate both the good and bad as part of reality.

2. What we do with how we see ourselves - The whole person moves toward improving our limitations and shortcomings and utilizing areas of personal excellence.  This is not a striving for perfection.  A whole person rests in who and where they are in life, while seeking personal growth for the benefit of self and others.  There is a resting in each moment because perfection is not the goal and one never arrives at a place of perfection.  Each moment is good even though we may experience pain and brokenness in the moment.  There is a greater story being written, and the imperfections of life make it beautiful - but I’m getting ahead of myself as I begin to delve into the spirituality of wholeness...more on that later. 

3. What we do when we go “backwards” - In case you missed it, life is not a steady improvement in the right direction.  A whole person will have pain, struggle and broken relationships.  Wholeness is not dependent upon our circumstances.  A whole person is able to find comfort within the discomfort of life.  

We all want to feel whole.  It cannot be attained.  Often, the harder we try to become whole the more we experience our brokenness.  Wholeness must be realized and therefore received.  It is a gift of God, and free of cost to any who would ask. There is so much more that can be said on wholeness.  In my next post I’ll give some thoughts on wholeness and spirituality.

- Josh Grover MA, LMHC