Nothing Missing, Nothing Broken (part 4) Your Spiritual Self

Aladin and Shalom

I will never forget the day I heard about Robin William’s untimely death. The same day he died, my local area in Metro Detroit had a horrible storm which led to awful flooding and a lot of ruined cars and basements. I can vividly remember watching the news and hearing about the damage but feeling an undertone of utter sadness for Williams and his family.

Not only did his suicide it confuse me, it greatly grieved me as a lifelong fan. Robin Williams started making me smile, laugh, and sing since I was a little girl watching the funny movies like Aladdin and Mrs. Doubtfire. Hook was a staple in my home growing up, and of course because it takes place around Christmas- I consider it a Christmas movie. Eventually, Robin Williams helped make me think and wonder with movies like Awakenings, Patch Adams, and Dead Poet’s Society. This paragraph is already too long- but I could go on and on about movies of his that helped me laugh and grow as a person.

How could someone who seemingly had fame, fortune, family, the love and admiration of millions…take his own life? What could Robin Williams have been possibly missing?

I am not going to assess someone’s mental health who I don’t know personally, but as I write this I can think of many other famous and rich celebrities who took their own lives or who drowned themselves with drugs and alcohol. Clearly, running hard after the things of this world cannot give us shalom. 

Supernatural Power is Needed

I wrote about three of the four aspects that make us who we are already in my blog, but finally I’m coming to and end with the most important leg to our table- our spiritual selves. We cannot obtain true shalom- having nothing broken and nothing missing, without the supernatural power of God in our lives.

I know when we look at some of our neighbors we may want to disagree- they have nice cars, smiles on their faces, families without trauma, they pay taxes and help society. We may look at some individuals without Jesus in their lives and assume they have shalom- but they really don’t.

The rest of the world can be physically healthy, they can have no mental health problems and be emotionally cool, calm, and collected. They cannot, however, be at peace in their spirit with their creator without surrender to Jesus as their Lord. 

Alive but Unwell

Even if I assume you, as my reader, have made that decision to follow Christ and ultimately have eternal peace with God, does that mean your spiritual life is completely healthy? To answer that question I will use two “church” words I think are really important.

If you’ve surrendered to Christ and have chosen to walk behind Him as your leader- you have been justified. You have been forgiven and washed cleaned- “just as if I’d never sinned” However, each one of us, as we follow behind Jesus our good shepherd, are in the life long process of sanctification- which means we are becoming more and more like Christ as we live our daily lives. 

In plain terms: you can be alive in Christ, but sick spiritually. Things like unconfessed sin, unhealed trauma, unrestored relationships, unyielded wills, and lack of spiritual rhythms can cause us to be very sick in our faith- though we will never again be spiritually dead.

Perfect Bedside Manner

So, brother or sister, are you healthy or are you sick in your spirit? One thing I love about our heavenly Father is that He is the Great Physician, one who never sleeps and never tires. He is ready to heal us and make us well, to give us perfect shalom in every part of our being. 

When we realize we have an unrepentant heart, a horrible attitude, or just a total lethargy toward spiritual rhythms, we turn back toward the face of God. Every single time we look back, we see His face is smiling toward us, why? Because He delights in us. Christ gave us the right to be called children of God- and His delight in us does not depend on being spiritually healthy or sick. God our Father delights in us totally independently of what we do or don’t do, it was sealed for us when Christ rose from the grave. ( Zeph. 3:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:38–39)

Shalom Is Possible

I challenge you, whoever you are, to invite the Holy Spirit into this moment (Romans 8:26). Ask Him to reveal any aspect of yourself that is not healthy and may need the Great Physician to intervene. God sent His son to die, not so we can barely limp our way into heaven, but so that we can have “life to the full” (John 10:10), so we can have shalom: nothing missing, nothing broken.