"31 Days" ChallengeChristColossians 2completecontentContent in ChristdeceivedhelperintimacyJerry Maguireone fleshromantic movieTom Cruiseyou complete me
31 DAYS: CONTENT IN CHRIST (Post 2 - "You Complete Me?")
Back in 1996, a movie debuted on the silver screen that rocked ladies' worlds when it came to romance. That movie was entitled Jerry Maguire...and I do NOT recommend watching it. Besides the gratuitous nudity, sex, cursing, etc., it dealt a devastating blow to the hearts and minds of women everywhere. Mind you, women did not see it as a blow at first - they saw the movie as wonderfully fulfilling. I argue, however, that it deceived us into thinking incorrectly about how love works.
"Hold up! Aren't you doing a 31 Days challenge on being 'content in Christ?' " you may be asking. Yes, yes I am...but gimme' a minute to set up the backstory.
So, there is a pivotal scene in the movie in which Jerry (aka Tom Cruise...tugging on the heartstrings even more, eh?) says the three little words the object of his affection has been longing to hear:
I know - you were thinking the three words were "I love you," right? Anyway, despite all the emotional havoc he wreaked on this woman throughout the whole movie, the three words "You complete me" worked miraculously to rectify the entire situation. Ahem...BARF!
Okay, I bring up the above scene from this movie in my discussion of being "content in Christ" because one of the lies the world tells us as women is that we will someday be completed by a man.
Let's reach into a couple of Scriptures to debunk this myth:
God's perspective:
Genesis 2:18 " 'It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make a helper suitable for Him.' "
And after God creates woman, Adam's perspective:
Genesis 2:23-24 "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
There are two phrases in this passage that refer to the union between man and woman: "suitable helper" and "one flesh." In neither the layman's English reading nor the original Hebrew do these phrases mean "one who completes another." God created the woman to be a helper that fit the needs of the man. God blesses the married union of a man and wife with a oneness in body and spirit due to the covenant they make to each other and the sexual union with which they "seal the deal."
So where do we see "completeness" in the Bible? Colossians 2:6-10 (and following) tells us about what happens when we have come to know Jesus in a real and intimate way:
"Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority."
CHRIST, and CHRIST ALONE can complete us. What a blessing this is, girls! I first read this passage in 1998, at the end of my first year in college (I know, I'm old!). Two years post-Jerry Maguire...at that moment, Tom Cruise's hunky, tear-filled declaration in the most romantic movie to-date meant NOTHING to me. JESUS CHRIST had declared Himself to be the One who completes me. And completeness is the epitome of contentment (hence "content in Christ").
I don't want to delve any further into this today, as I feel we need to let that sink in, ladies. Read Colossians for yourself, and feel free to leave comments below.
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