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My introduction to everything I’ve learned about the God of wholeness happened in church. I was nine years old when my mother first took me there, primarily to expose me to faith, spirituality, and the tenets of good character. She was raising me by herself in a neighborhood where drugs, gangs, and all sorts of crime were just blocks away. Up against odds like those, she thought it best to get me involved with church, and she was right. I felt something powerful there. It was something bigger than me, and I knew it. I didn’t understand everything I was experiencing, but I knew it was divine and that I needed it in my life, forever.

The people I went to church with never used the word wholeness or talked much about being whole except when they talked about people in the Bible who were healed from sickness. They talked about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. They talked about Jesus, the Son of God, who came into this world to end the power of sin. And they talked about the Holy Spirit, whose purpose was to comfort us, lead us, and empower us to change. Not fully understanding all that I was being taught, I embraced what I could comprehend and began my spiritual journey. It wasn’t until years later that I gained a deeper understanding of the connection between the God of wholeness and the faith I had embraced in church as a child.

When I was in my late twenties, I felt divinely urged to delve deeper into the faith of my childhood. I realized that God wanted more for me than simply being a “Christian.” He wanted me to be whole — just like Him — in every way. This was a significant awakening for me that not only changed the trajectory of my life but deepened both my relationship with God and my understanding of what God desires for us all.

I learned that what God wants for us can be summed up in one word — wholeness.

Although I don’t remember ever hearing the word wholeness in the church I grew up in, I do remember hearing another word quite often — holiness. I never put the two terms together, because the way holiness was used suggested being pious, not being whole and complete. The word holiness was used to relate to our actions. I learned that living a life of holiness meant refraining from any act or behavior considered unholy or unrighteous. This limited perspective on the concept of holiness overlooks a powerful reality about wholeness. To expect pious behavior externally from a person who isn’t becoming whole internally is like expecting the cart to show up before the horse. It won’t happen.

God’s process of making us whole is His guarantee that whole or holy actions will follow.

Right doing was never more important to God than right being. That’s because God’s plan for us is change. If an individual does what he or she feels are right things but never becomes God’s idea of a right person, God’s goal is not reached. God wants to see a version of us that reflects His own likeness, and as He guides us to that identity, holy actions naturally follow.

-touré roberts