Wholehearted [part ii]

I left us off two weeks ago on a bit of a cliff-hanger, to-be-continued ending; and I left us with a small homework assignment. We are talking in this series about wholeheartedness and what it means to be wholehearted people. I started last time with the greatest commandment from the Bible, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. We noted the way in which these categories of heart, soul, mind, and strength all have an intention to intersect. But so often in our lives we find that we are people whose heart and soul and mind and strength become disconnected and fractured apart. In other words—as we summarized last time—we lack wholeness.

ask God to show me the places in my life that are fractured and torn apart obvious symptoms subtle symptom

self-awareness is helpful in healing

And I left us with this two-week assignment: to ask God to show you the places in your life that are fractured and torn apart. That’s pretty important step that we cannot rush over too quickly, and I hope you took time in the last few weeks to discover some of this in your own life. Self-awareness is so helpful in healing. Think about it, because sometimes it is obvious. If you were to fall and break a bone in your body, you are pretty aware that something is not right. The constant pain will not let you ignore that something is wrong with your body. And because you cannot help but be aware of the problem when you break a bone, you know that you have to seek medical help to address it and fix it so you can heal. Self-awareness of the problem is what drives you to take that step towards whatever is necessary for healing. Sometimes a bad toothache can be that way as well. If you have ever experienced an infection that leaves you with a toothache, it can sometimes be so bad that you cannot think about or concentrate on anything else until you get to a dentist and have that infection cleared up so you can heal.

Those are examples of obvious symptoms. But what about the less obvious symptoms? What about places in our lives that need healing, but we overlook it because we are not aware, not paying attention. Ever since 2015 when I was first diagnosed with cancer, I picked up a greater awareness of watching for symptoms so I could alert my doctor sooner if I noticed something not quite right. I added a few new habits and routines which keep an eye towards staying healthy and avoiding illness. Things like this — I get a CT scan every six months so that any recurrence of a tumor can be detected early before I would otherwise know or experience any symptoms. And dealing with a weakened immune system meant adding a few habits like bumping light switches with my elbow instead of my hand, avoid touching door handles if I can help it, and stop shaking hands with other people. I never used to pay attention to things like that before 2015. That little bit of self-awareness to avoid picking up germs has made a difference; it has been several years since I have had so much as a cold or a sinus infection or the flu. A little self-awareness towards the things that cause us harm can go a long way.

Today I want us to consider what the apostle Paul says in Romans 7 about a little self-awareness towards the things that cause us harm.

Romans 7:14–25 NIV

14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This passage from Romans comes across from Greek into English sounding like something of a Dr. Seuss tongue twister. Maybe that makes it a bit difficult for us to understand—let alone difficult to read. I think what we are seeing here is Paul sharing something of his own self-awareness; he is aware of his own lack of wholeness. He is talking about the fracture and disconnect between heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And now that Paul is aware of the disconnect which fractures his wholehearted love for God, he sees all the ways this lack of wholeheartedness shows up in his life. Indeed, the symptoms were always there, but now he is paying attention to notice.

I few weeks back I had a conversation with someone who was dealing with some heart atrial fibrillation. I have never experienced heart arrhythmia, so I asked him if he could tell when his heart was out of rhythm. He said it was immediately noticeable—not a symptom you could miss or ignore or overlook because it took away so much of his energy to be physically active and just wiped him out. Some of the simplest and lowest impact physical tasks suddenly took all the energy he had. Heart arrhythmia will do that. When the proper rhythm isn’t there, everything is impacted; everything suffers.

lack of wholeness saps all of our energy and wipes us out

symptoms: trouble sleeping at night — tense clenched muscles — loss of hope — uncontrolled anger

It seems like this is what a lack of wholeness does to us. It saps all of our energy and wipes us out. It takes the joy out of life and leaves us knowing that something is not right. The apostle Paul had to become aware of this in his own life. Are you aware of it in your life? Do you notice the symptoms which give you a clue to the places in your life that are fractured and lacking wholeness between heart, soul, mind, and strength? Let me point out just a few of what those loss-of-wholeness symptoms might look like. When you have trouble sleeping at night because something weighs so heavily on your mind that you just cannot shut it off—an example of mental health pushing against physical health. When the very mention of certain topics in conversation cause your heart-rate to increase, your jaw to clench a bit tighter, your fists to curl, and your muscles to tense up—an example of emotional health pushing against physical health. When chronic illness or unending pain or deepening dementia leaves you feeling as though there is no hope or purpose for life to continue—an example of physical health pushing against spiritual health. When you lose control and blow up at others around you because just cannot cope with your anger any longer—an example of emotional health pushing against mental health. (By the way, an indicator for this one is blaming others for your anger; that’s a lie—other people do not make you angry, you are responsible for your own anger.)

Maybe you are aware of things like these in your own life; maybe you are not. Maybe you know life is exhausting and things are not right, but haven’t pinpointed the reason why—you are sort of aware that something is wrong, but cannot quite identify it or name it. Maybe there is still some of that hard work to do in your life of bringing out all those places in which your lack of wholeness shows up. In fact, here is my guess: all of us here still have some work to do in uncovering our own lack of wholeness between heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every one of us. Even though I gave two weeks to let us sit and think about it, we’re still not there.

every time we blame the issue, we pass over the our own lack of wholeness

Here is the proof that each one of us needs to dig a little deeper. Every time we blame the issue, we pass over the our own lack of wholeness. This is what I mean by blaming the issue. How many times have you said or thought something that goes like this: “I just need to get past…[fill in the blank]” We just need to get past this pandemic; we just need to get past this election; I just need to get past this semester in school; I just need to get past this project at work. But here is the truth—don’t miss this! The issue is not the problem (whatever the issue is). Our own lack of wholeness in heart, soul, mind, and strength is the problem.

A few years back I had to have the alignment on my car fixed. Because there was a misalignment in the wheels that would cause the car to shake and vibrate at faster speeds on the highway. In fact, that’s really the only place I noticed it was driving fast. Going down the slow residential streets of my neighborhood were no problem at all. I suppose the solution here could appear rather simple; don’t drive fast. If I just stay under 25MPH everywhere I go, then there is no shaking or vibrating. Problem fixed. Except that the problem is not fixed; the same misalignment is still there, and I cannot fix it by simply getting off the highway anymore than a misaligned heart, soul, mind, and strength can be fixed by simply getting past a pandemic or past contentious political season. When I take the car out on the high impact stress of highway speed, the misalignment becomes so obvious it cannot be ignored. But it’s not the highway’s fault. When our lives go though high impact stress issues, the misalignment of our heart, soul, mind, and strength becomes so obvious it cannot be ignored, but it’s not the fault of the issue. Getting past the issue does not fix our own internal misalignment anymore than getting off the highway fixes my car’s misalignment.

You see, because if the issues are the thing that is the problem, then Paul needs to back up and rewrite Romans 7. If the issue is the problem, then Paul would write, “we just need to get past this Roman Empire” or “we just need to get past this bitter division between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians.” However, of course, Paul takes us exactly where we need to go; he talks about his own lack of wholeness in Romans 7; he talks about the way his heart, soul, mind, and strength are out of alignment and pushing against each other in Romans 7. He is describing each one of us even as he is describing himself.

Paul’s conclusion: “what a wretched man I am! who will rescue me?”

And what is Paul’s conclusion?

Romans 7:24 NIV

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

He cannot do it himself. Paul cannot overcome his loss-of-wholeness on his own. The issue is not the thing to blame; Paul recognizes that he is the one to blame; he is the one who bears the guilt because it is his sinful nature which has fractured and broken his ability to ever love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. He knows the punishment and consequences for his own sin. And he knows that there is absolutely nothing he can do about it on his own; he cannot rescue himself.

vs 24 — Greek soma = body, corpse, lifeless physical body

“who can rescue me now since I am already as good as dead?”

Let me back off for a minute here and draw attention to a couple deeper Bible study items. The first has to do with the word ‘body’ in verse 24. The particular Greek word Paul uses in this verse is soma, which means either body or corpse, a lifeless physical body. And by adding the Greek word thanotos—which means ‘death’—I think a loose translation of this phrase wold be, “who can rescue me now since I am already as good as dead?” Here is why this is an important Bible study interpretation point. Paul is NOT making a distinction between the physical world and the spiritual world. He is NOT talking about a purely spiritual salvation away from a physical world. That interpretation would not make sense in the context of the rest of Paul’s letter to the Romans. And it certainly would not make sense for Paul to suggest that the solution to his disconnection between heart, soul, mind, and strength would be to throw away heart, mind, and strength leaving only the soul. No; Paul wants us to see a wholeness of putting these things back together, not pulling them further apart.

Here’s the second Bible study point. Paul’s connection between our loss-of-wholeness and the sinful nature into which we are all born in this world. Look at how this plays out in verse 20.

Romans 7:20 NIV

20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

This is NOT Paul trying to make excuses as though none of this is his fault. This is not some form of the classic the-devil-made-me-do-it argument. What, then, is Paul trying to say here? He goes on in verse 21

Romans 7:21–22 NIV

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;

connection between lack of wholeness and sinful nature

Jesus notes at various points in the gospels how the law of God is summarized in that command to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I talked last week about that command being an invitation from God to be whole again. Paul is acknowledging that this is what he wants, to be whole again. He is acknowledging for us that our lack-of-wholeness exists because of sin. And because we cannot do anything about sin on our own, we cannot find our way back to wholeness on our own. We are stuck. Except that Paul answers the question he asks in verse 24. Who will rescue us?

Romans 7:25a NIV

25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Everything we have looked at which is a result of our own lack of wholeheartedness leaves us buried in a pretty deep cavern. All that stress and anxiety in our world today which we feel as pressure in our lives pushing away at our heart, soul, mind, and strength leaves us exhausted and weary and worn out. Everything the apostle Paul brings forward in Romans 7 digs us even further into that pit.

Maybe you look at this and think to yourself, “sure, there may be good godly people who can find their way through this mess, but I’m too lost, I’m too fractured and torn, my heart-soul-mind-and-strength are pushed too far apart, I cannot get myself out of this and put back together again.” And you’re right about that. You cannot get yourself out of this and put yourself back together again. But you don’t have to; only God can do that for you.

it is my own sin that leaves me fractured and torn on the inside

only Jesus can take away the guilt of my sin

only Jesus can begin to make me whole again

So stop trying to figure out this life of wholeheartedness on your own. Stop trying to blame the issues or blame other people; it is our own sin that leaves us fractured and torn on the inside. But at the same time, let go of the lie that you can never be whole again. Let God into your life so that Jesus can take away the guilt of your sin and begin to make you whole again.