anything but whole

When we lose touch with the continuing reality of our selfishness, then forgiveness becomes something that it is good of God to do, like the newspaper carrier's making sure the morning edition lands under the porch roof on a rainy day. We feel moved enough to remember his kindness with a generous tip the next time he collects.

Part of the problem is that we feel the reality of our wounds more than the fact of our sin. We therefore react with more passion to those things that restore a sense of personal wholeness than to our redemption.

How wrong of us to dedicate our energy to becoming whole. History is filled with the lives of godly men and women who managed to bless others in the midst of unrelieved personal struggles that left them feeling anything but whole.

~ Larry Crabb, Men & Women, p113 (italics are his)