More Than Wellness: Discover WHOLENESS!

Amidst an anxiety-filled world, wellness is all the buzz. Navigating the daily pressures of competing demands and the unrelenting quest to preserve our youth, we live in a culture more and more consumed with the idea and practices of “wellness.” We are bombarded daily with new ways to tone down, build up, break away, relax, indulge, cleanse, purge and minimize to “maximize our lives.” Sound confusing? Many people are finding it to be. So much so that ironically the increase of wellness practices is causing more stress for many struggling just to keep up. 

Wellness now represents a $4.4 trillion dollar economy.  It has become a movement and, according to NielsenIQ, it was “the single most powerful consumer force of 2021.”

After years of documenting and embracing this growing global fascination and business of “wellness”, in her recent book, The Gospel of Wellness [Holt Publishers], author and former lifestyle editor at NBC News Rina Raphael asks some important questions:  

What is “wellness”, exactly?

At its most basic level, it’s the active pursuit of well-being outside the realm of medicine. It’s more than just avoiding sickness; it encompasses prevention and maintenance; nutrition, fitness, sleep, community support, and stress management. It’s the choices we make to feel better physically, mentally, socially and spiritually.

Does it all sound a bit general and vague?

That’s because it is. There is no agreed-upon definition of what “well” is, and it’s one reason why the wellness industry has grown so big…

Wellness can mean almost anything…. It’s about what you, the individual, can do for yourself to get through this thing we call life. (GOW, p. 4)

The Gospel of Wellness?

Raphael additionally reports wellness today as “almost an aspirational obsession for some and close to religious dogma for others. The average American believes adherence to popularized methods can overcome sickness, unhappiness, and even death. A strict overhaul of diet, movement, and thoughts is hailed as the new messiah. In wellness, it seems, we trust (p. 5).” She admits to soul struggles herself through overindulging the promises of the wellness industry. Her conclusion after years of research is “the wellness industry isn’t well (p. 11).”

As a Christ-follower, amidst a wellness-crazed culture, a couple of vital questions need to be asked: One, is “wellness” a worthy pursuit for a child of God? And Two, is there an alternative or more worthy focus that will better help us “get through this thing we call life”? 

While Jesus arguably made people “well” in a multitude of ways – cleansing lepers, restoring speech and vision, and even raising the dead – the gospel accounts record more than just wellness resulting from these encounters – he also brought them “wholeness.” 

To the daring woman healed of a blood disorder, “Jesus said to her, ‘Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you’re healed and whole.’” (Mark 5:34 MSG)

When Jesus readied his disciples for his departure, he said, “I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace.” (John 14:26)

And when conveying his John 3:16 love, he said: “…no one need be destroyed; by believing in [Christ], anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”(v. 17)

While healing represents the removal of things harmful, things limiting or hurtful; biblical wholeness is about becoming full, complete, and replete with God’s plan, presence and purpose. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life to the full … (John 10:10).” While wellness may provide remedies, wholeness is a higher purpose. While healing is an application of God’s grace; wholeness is the realization of it. 

The Journey of Wholeness

Through several years of teaching pastoral counseling, one of my favorite questions to ask students has been, “What is the goal of counseling?” Invariably, most begin with responses such as “comfort”, “healing” or “reconciliation.” While each of these have merit, the conclusion always ends up with “wholeness”. This term epitomizes our innate quest. People want and need to experience wholeness in the lives, their families, their relationships, their work – wholeness in their souls.

A definition of well or wellness would be “in good health” or “recovered from illness.” Whole or wholeness, on the other hand is about becoming “complete, full, entire” or “in one piece.” 

The all-familiar blessing phrase among Jews through history is not simply “peace”, but “Shalom”. And, shalom is in essence a blessing of wholeness. While it can denote “hello” or “goodbye”, it is all-encompassing in that it affirms making something whole, it conveys peace, harmony, wholeness, prosperity, welfare [or wellness] and tranquility.

But how does discovering wholeness occur in our lives and experience of faith in Christ? 

DISCOVERING WHOLENESS begins with BROKENESS.

While wellness is often focused on best practices and better habits in life, wholeness starts in the broken places of our lives. Wellness efforts include things such as cleaner eating, intermittent fasting, spinning, walking and mindfulness. It is often about taking ourselves to a better place in our daily practices, realizing our potential. While that may be all well and good, for the Christ-follower these practices alone are not enough. 

Wellness promises to help us actualize our greater potential. Wholeness, on the other hand, is something we discover in the broken places of life. Our brokenness reveals more than merely our need for a new practice, habit, or exercise; it affirms our deep need for Christ and his presence on our lives. As Christ-followers, we believe Jesus was the one who was torn and broken on a cross to make us whole; he was completely torn apart so that our lives might be completely put back together.

It may sound counter-intuitive or paradoxical, but wholeness begins with brokenness – in our place of deep need. But how does it continue?

DISCOVERING WHOLENESS grows through PRAYER

Worry or concerns about our health often trigger our engagement into the world of wellness and its practices. The desire for a better or fuller life leads to changes in our eating habits, work-life practices, or exercise routines. Desire gets the wheels turning, but it takes discipline to keep them turning. 

Wholeness happens quite differently. God meets us in the most unexpected places, in the broken places of life, right amid losses, hurts, disappointments, failures and frustrations, but through prayer he helps to keep us in a dependent place – a place of surrender to him and his will. The challenges and struggles of life and work can disrupt our lives and souls in countless ways. But the temptation to be anxious or worried serves to remind us of our need to often come to a place of experiencing God’s presence through prayer. 

While brokenness shows us our need for God and the wholeness only he can bring and build, prayer is the best and highest response to that need. Paul said it this way:

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Phil. 4:6-7 MSG) 

Ultimately, God allows us to be broken in our lives not because he wants to break us apart, but rather to break us open … open to prayer and the power of his presence in our lives. We begin to discover wholeness in these ways. But where is this process ultimately taking us?

DISCOVERING WHOLENESS culminates in CHRISTLIKENESS.

God is the epitome of wholeness. The books of Revelation and Ezekiel depict the angelic beings known as the Cherubim encircling the throne of God and proclaiming his praises. The sense is that God is so completely perfect and whole that they these heavenly beings marvel at his wholeness – compelled into a continual state of worship and awe.

The book of Hebrews says that Jesus is “the exact representation of the Father”. The Bible says that he came to “reveal the Father” to us. And, we are told that growing in godliness means being “conformed to the image of his son [i.e., Jesus](Rom. 8:29).” So, while wellness may culminate in a better or improved version of ourselves, the journey to wholeness is the gradual revealing of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Paul calls this “the glorious … mystery.” 

While the image of God is revealed bit by bit in our lives in this journey, in the fullness of time it will be even better. Jesus promised that one day:

“…everything handed over to me by the Father [will] be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.” (John 6:39-40 MSG)  

Christ’s plan for our lives goes well beyond wellness. From the moment we encounter him in our lives as his followers, he leads us on the journey to wholeness. Through brokenness and prayer that process grows and leads to our being made “whole at the completion of time.” While engaging in the practices of wellness may be all well and good, as Christ-followers we do something much more … we follow the “Prince of Peace.” In The Message translation of Isaiah’s prophecy, Eugene Peterson translates the Prince of Peace as “The Prince of Wholeness (Is. 9:6-7 THE MESSAGE)” and promises “there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.” 

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Robert Crosby, PhD. serves as the President of Emerge Counseling Ministries.