Whole

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). In this verse the word translated into English as “perfect” could also mean whole, or complete. I think a lot of us see the word perfect and we panic a little. We can remember all of the times that we have tried to control every little detail, have tried so hard to make it through a week, a day, an hour without making any mistakes and have fallen short every single time. We may have even given up on trying to be good altogether since we’re so obviously incapable of ever living up to this invitation from the Savior to be perfect. But if we think of being perfect as being less about living a one hundred percent flawless life, and more about living a complete or a whole life, then the goal doesn’t seem so impossible. Being perfect, or being whole, means loving God with our whole souls. It means loving and serving our brothers and sisters with our whole hearts. It means not being just the salt of our own home, but the salt of the whole earth. It means not just shining a light inside our own little bushel, but being a light for the whole world. It means not just loving our neighbors, but loving the whole human family, including and perhaps especially our enemies. Being whole means staying poor in spirit until we have entered the kingdom of heaven. Being whole means staying spiritually hungry and thirsty until we have been filled with the Holy Ghost. Being whole means that we continue to be meek until we have inherited the whole earth. Being whole means continuing to make peace until there is no more conflict or hate. Being whole means receiving both the sun and the rain, the praise and the persecution, the glory and the tribulation, the joy and the sorrow, the pleasure and the pain. Being whole means sharing our Heavenly Father’s gifts freely. It means going the extra mile. Being whole means continually having the courage to ask, “What lack I yet?” and having the even greater courage to faithfully follow our Savior guidance, when He shows us how we can overcome what we still lack. To be these magically infallible beings who effortlessly float from victory to victory, never tasting failure or sorrow or rebellion or sin, never doubting, never stumbling, always flawlessly perfect - this is impossible. But to be whole and complete, to feel like on this day or this hour, we chose to serve the Lord, we felt the fear and we did the right thing anyway, or we recognized how badly we screwed up and even though we knew we couldn’t ever really make up for it, we apologized anyway - this we can do. Even if we may never know what it is like to be perfect in the way that we sometimes imagine that we ought to be, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our faith can make us whole.