"You Complete Me." Oh, Really?
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“You complete me.” In his role as sports agent Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise utters this famous line at the conclusion of a speech to his co-star, Renee Zellweger, when she attempts to break off their relationship. (By the way, can you believe this December will mark TWENTY-FOUR YEARS since this movie was released?) Along with, “Show me the money!” and, “You had me at hello,” “You complete me will serve as one of the reasons this movie will live on in pop culture for a long, long, time.
That being said, scripture has a different witness when it comes to any of us being complete. In fact, you could say this calling from scripture might be one of the most difficult of all for us to realize, for if we are honest with ourselves, it calls us to a radical transformation the likes of which might be too daunting for us to consider.
What might this challenge be, you ask?
Hear these words from Hebrews thirteen, verses twenty to twenty-one:
Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
May God add divine blessing to the reading and hearing of this sacred word.
It’s right there in front of us, dear friends. The plea of the writer is for those receiving this letter to be complete in every good thing so they may do God’s will. THAT is the challenge that lies before us, no?
Oh, wait. Maybe it is not quite that easy. MAYBE there’s a little bit more to the story than being complete.
As we continue to navigate these very strange and difficult times, I have had a strange fear brewing within my pastor’s heart, a fear that until recently I wasn’t able to really articulate until we got notice we were undergoing an extension of our stay-at-home order.
That fear? Simple. That all we have to do is get back to normal and everything will be ok.
Well…getting back into the regular routines of life should not be that which completes us, any more than any romantic parter, or money, or prestige, or power, or…well, we could go on, but I think you get the point by now. And therein lies the challenge…we cannot of our own efforts find completeness in anything we can acquire through human efforts - be it tangible assets or intangible stuff like power, prestige, love…
No - the writer’s exhortation is for GOD to make you complete in every good thing…GOD’s work, not ours.
Also notice that he doesn’t just say, “May God make you complete…” No, it’s not that simple. I think the writer knew the human psyche well enough to know that we would consciously or subconsciously be asking ourselves why we should expect God to do this when we are perfectly capable of knowing our needs.
Rather, the author reminds the hearer, and by extension, us, this is no ordinary God. The God who will make us complete is the God who is of peace, the God who raises the dead, the God who tends to us the way a great shepherd would take care of their flock, the God who sealed his promises with us by the blood of his son…the God that can do all that CAN also make us complete.
Not only that, but God’s desire is to make us complete FOR the purpose of doing God’s will, working in a way that is pleasing in God’s sight.
So, I believe this begs of us two questions - One: What is it that we believe would make us complete, and, Two: For what purpose do we seek to be complete - for our will to be realized or for God’s will to be done?