WHOLE.

The Rick Warren quote (at the top of the blog) motivated me to think about life in a new way. Because God created each one of us and God is perfect, there is a nagging voice within all of us that says that life should be perfect. And yet, this is clearly not the case in the world today. Something has gotten off track in a very real way, leaving us dissatisfied in the very core of our being. This dissatisfaction can actually be a good thing because it makes us realize that something is wrong. In the meantime, we are called to live between the “railroad tracks” of joy and suffering, until things are made whole.

Here’s more of the quote from an interview with Rick Warren:

“Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy…

I used to think that life was hills and valleys…I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life…No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on…And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, "which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.”

~Rick Warren