Wholeness: Gift or Prize?

Wholeness is not a prize to be earned and won, Phil Kniss, lead pastor at the Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA, told his congregation, but rather, "it is a gift of God to be received." Basing his remarks on the ancient story of Naaman, commander of the army of King Aram, receiving healing from his leprosy only after yielding to the simple instructions of the prophet Elisha, Kniss insisted there is a powerful connection between yieldedness and wholeness, between releasing and healing, between letting go and dropping our obsessions and anxieties and receiving God's pure gift of wholeness of life.