Wholeness

3 John 2 says, “2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” When I first heard this verse, I was struggling financially so I focused on prospering financially. When I was depressed, I focused on my soul being healed from past hurts and for my soul to prosper in joy and in peace. Today it finally occurred to me that the verse uses the word AND. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things AND be in health…as your soul prospers. These three things are happening simultaneously. Success, health, and emotional stability all working together in our favor. I didn’t see it before because most of the time things in my life are in turmoil. As I posted previously, my son and I have had a long road of difficulties particularly over the past couple of years. Pure turmoil and my soul has felt mostly chaos when it comes to him. Even though some things were going well, my relationship with him was worse than I thought it would ever be and I didn’t see how it could get better. On a particularly rough day I prayed for other people to experience joy unspeakable, peace that surpasses all understanding, and for them to feel the love of God, and later that day I experienced those same things for myself. What I am learning is that life and all of our circumstances don’t have to be perfect in order for us to experience joy, peace, and love. I tend to have a “things have to be perfect to be okay” mentality, and in my mind if something is off then nothing feels right and I feel off balance. I’m growing and learning to take things in stride and to trust that God will work everything out without me ever having to lose a night of sleep or peace of mind. Friends, I am a work in progress. I certainly don’t have it all together, but I have committed to at least try to work towards the wholeness that God promises in this verse.