Whole, Hole or Shalom?

Five Minute Friday and today's prompt is whole. 

What does that word bring to mind for you?

Write for 5 minutes unedited on this one word.

Whole by Kath

The word whole immediately reminds me of Shalom, which is God's word for whole - being whole in every way, being in perfect peace throughout.   It's not being whole in every part of us, because separating ourselves into parts is a very Greek way of thinking.  But whole in every aspect, every way, in our inner being, being well-rounded, which might be a more culture-friendly way of understanding it.  

God wants us to be whole, to be full. 

And yet whole, in English, sounds more like a hole, like empty, like not full.   I am always fascinated by the roots of English words, but have never really thought about where the word 'whole' comes from.   It doesn't sound right or look right.  I wonder is it related to who?  Who is whole?   Maybe, maybe not.

So, back to Shalom.  God's good desire for us is Shalom - whole, at peace, in every way, in every aspect of our lives.   But I have been discovering that to have Shalom, to be at peace, sometimes there has to be less of something - in fact, less of a lot of things that we hold on to. 

We need a hole to be whole.   And into that hole we need to ditch some stuff, and not take it back.   Stuff like bitterness, regret, unforgiveness, cynicism, anger, materialism, fear, angst, the need to be right are a few things that come to mind.   And sometimes we need to ditch some stuff we can actually hold.  Stuff like too many toys, books (yeah, I said books), distractions, gadgets, things that represent images we might be inclined to worship, like brand names, icons, modern idols.   And other less tangible things, but just as damaging and clogging, like social media and damaging ways of relating to people, time commitments that are not God-directed.  

So, down into the hole goes stuff that we need to let go of, so we can be full of what God has in mind for us, full of whatever is pure and lovely and noble and honourable  and great and nourishing and life-giving, not life draining.  Then we can have that Shalom, that perfect peace - we can be whole.

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