Slice of Life 3/6/2025 and Spiritual Journey Thursday

Once a month, I join a group of like minded friends (many of them participants in this challenge) to write about our spiritual journeys. We take turns hosting and this month, Denise Krebs, invited us to write about wholeness. "I want to be authentic and honest, unafraid of the complexities of life. Just live this next chapter of my life in wholeness. I would love to learn from you about what wholeness means to you on your spiritual journey."

I've spent the last few days trying to keep her words in mind. I found myself changing her word to wholehearted or whole and then I would try to pull myself back to her word, wholeness. I fully intended to write this post last night because I'm attending a conference for the next three days, but I went to bed without writing it and woke up in the early morning hours trying to recall Denise's word. I decided to get up and write.  I pulled up her blog and found her word, wholeness. 

Let me explain some of my rambles around forms of this word over the last few days. To begin, I think wholehearted indicates being undivided and able to give from a place of goodness. I often think of the Chinese custom of giving with both hands, which to me indicates holding nothing back. Being wholehearted in my spiritual journey means that I strive to live by first loving God and then loving my neighbor. Strive has to be the operative word here as I find myself daily falling short. As I mused about being whole (complete or undivided in my devotion), I came to understand the importance of be (my one little word for this year). To be whole, I need to be still, to focus on a life lived with Christ at its center. And then a seemingly unrelated song came to mind, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." As I hummed those words, a comfort came to my heart, knowing that yes, He does have the whole world in His hands.

Finally, as I turned my thoughts to wholeness, I reflected on a dear friend, a physician, who spoke of this verse “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” He pointed out that for this woman becoming whole was a process of being healed of her particular illness. However, becoming whole does not always bring physical healing. I like the way Shari Pippens discusses being made whole. "It does not always mean a healing of our physical infirmities. Rather, it means that when we come to the Savior, He will first heal our hearts and then, sometimes, He will heal our bodies. To be made whole, we have to reach out to Him in faith.  ...for now, wholeness comes not from being physically perfect but from faith in a Savior who will calm, comfort, and heal my heart."

Denise's call to consider wholeness has given me the opportunity to think about it in the context of my religious tradition. I like her words, "unafraid of the complexities of life". I look forward to reading more posts about wholeness from my fellow spiritual travelers.