The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
EQUATING WHOLENESS By Rev. Jack Mulholland, Flin Flon Alliance Church In the book "The Sensation Being Somebody" the author expresses a false belief in simple equations we tend to accept. We often mistakenly think that good appearance plus the admiration it brings equals being Somebody. Or we believe that a certain amount of status plus the recognition we accumulate equals being a Special Person. Not so! Try as we might by our appearance, performance, or social status to find self-verification for a sense of being somebody, we always come short of satisfaction. Whatever pinnacle of self-identity we achieve soon crumbles under the pressure of rejection or criticism, introspection or guilt, fear or anxiety. We cannot do anything to qualify for the by-product of being loved unconditionally and voluntarily. If their equations could work for anyone, surely they would have worked for King Solomon. He was the king of Israel during the greatest years of that country's history. If a meaningful life is the result of appearance, admiration, performance, accomplishments, status or recognition, Solomon would have been the most together person who ever lived. He had it all! But God also gave the king an extra dose of wisdom to achieve all he did. What was Solomon's commentary on it all? "Meaningless! Meaningless! ... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." (Eccl. 1:2) Take the advice of the wise king: All the stuff and status you can acquire don't add up to personal wholeness or satisfaction. Millions of people climb the ladder to success only to discover when they reach the top that they are leaning against the wrong wall. The only identity equation that works in God's kingdom is you plus Christ equals wholeness and meaning.
