WHOLENESS

Wholeness is fitting the pieces together when life is unpredictable and challenging.
Connecting with myself, with God and with others at a deeper level.

Jesus said: "I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly".

These words take on deeper meaning when I let them into my soul to bring healing peace and faith that is real even in the times of darkness. I am now getting up when it is still dark in the morning and it is harder to do when the light is not there to waken your spirit.

The abundant life is the gift of recovering a sense of well-being in myself and being aware of the needs of others.

Douglas Todd in the Vancouver Sun writes about three new books
"Jesus the Village Psychiatrist" by Donald Capps
"Jesus and Psychology" by Fraser Watts
"Spiritual Emotions: A Psychology of Christian Virtues" by Robert C. Roberts.

"Capps turns upside down the traditional understanding of the New Testament miracle stories, in which Jesus is said to have healed the blind, the hemorrhaging, and the paralyzed".

I believe that anytime we experience God's grace it is a miracle. I believe that Jesus calls us out of the anxiety of life into a place of trust and faith. I think that trust is one of the most important values in all our relationships. Since we all our imperfect we can only try to love others as we would be loved. There is value in being honest about our weaknesses, recognizing that only then can we experience the joy of wholeness and gratitude.

The words of an old hymn captures the mystical and sacred wholeness that hungers inside of us: "In all of life thou livest, the true life of all."

I have felt at times that I am out in my small boat drifting along with deep currents wanting to carry me along in what others say I need to believe. I am seeing that I must take up my paddle and choose to trust God will reveal to me that although life is a daily struggle for me battling fatigue that by surrendering myself more completely to the spirit of goodness I will find health that energizes me because there is a Love that will not let me go!

I am reading about a nun working with Mother Theresa in Calcutta. She struggles with wanting to do more amongest so much poverty and suffering. I feel guilty as I walk by a man sitting with a sign on the sidewalk. I could have asked if I could buy him a sandwich or a drink.

We had plans to go to church but both of us feel sick, upset stomacks. I may go to the store to get us something. I feel bad knowing it is Randy's last Sunday here but I am sure there will be a good turn-out.