The Key to Wholeness

How do we overcome our past? How can we be healed from our brokenness and become people who give more than we receive? Is there a way to develop the integrity and wholeness the Scriptures describe? What is the path that leads us to healing?

I submit the only thing that makes a person whole is developing a heart that is filled with gratitude. The only thing that moves us from brokenness to healing, from one side of the spectrum to the other, is gratitude. This is a very practical and personal issue, but it is extremely difficult for us to practice.

We have been told for our entire life that everything is about us, and that people should learn how to value us correctly. All our relationships are meant to meet our needs, and people need to learn to relate to us correctly to avoid conflict. Everyone has to look out for themselves first. The problem this creates is the dysfunction and brokenness our society is filled with today! Can you imagine if EVERYONE took the attitude of themselves being #1 over everyone and everything else? It would be chaos, and unfortunately we are seeing that today. It seems right to tell a hurt and broken person to focus on loving themselves, but ultimately that advice is doing a great disservice to people.

The only healing from our brokenness is learning how to value others above ourselves, and to have an attitude of thankfulness regarding our lives. Too often we see life as the sum of things being taken from us and only negativity experienced. We see the glass as being half empty and we wonder who has stolen from us. When you have an attitude of thankfulness and gratitude, then you realize how much you have received in life. We can see clearly how little we actually deserve, and that all of life is really a gift from God. Believing this changes everything. We start to see the glass as being half full, and we wonder who has shared so much with us.

Practice gratitude in your life and watch how God can heal even the deepest wounds.

The Pursuit of Wholeness

Our society tells us the key to happiness and fulfillment is in getting more and more. To be happy, we need to get more attention, affection, affluence, acclaim, more, more, more. This message has been preached to us since we were infants and we never were weaned off of it.

What has this message produced? A society of broken people. We are promised that more would lead to joy and happiness but somewhere along the way we realized it was not the case. A person gets everything their heart desires and yet they feel empty. We look at a person like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton and see that excess does not produce happiness. If riches provided happiness then the richest people in the world would be the happiest people in the world, but we know that is not true.

What we fail to realize is the depth of our own richness. A person living in the United States is one of the truly blessed and rich in the world, and yet we are not fulfilled. The U.S. probably has more people in therapy or counseling than any other nation. School shooting are on the rise. Teen suicide rates are up, and a recent poll found that 1 in 5 teens have seriously contemplated ending their own life. We get richer and richer but instead of getting feeling better inside, we feel worse.

What is the cure to this madness? To move from brokenness to wholeness. What is wholeness and what does it look like? Very simply, a whole person gives more than they receive. That may seem simple, but I promise you it is harder than it sounds.

Let's begin the journey this week. Let's seek to give more than we take in. Find a way this week to give of yourself.