Jesus Christ calls us to a life of holistic spirituality, which is characterised by a philosophy of integration of every aspect of our life into one another. Our physical, mental, spiritual, intellectual, and emotional parts are integrated into one whole personality as human beings. There lies in it a holism that ensures wellbeing and fullness or ‘life in abundance’. Jesus said that he came to offer us abundant life. This is possible and meaningful in this world when our faith and life, our confession and faithful following of his footsteps are integrated. Our belief and behaviour and our profession and practice go together.

We live our lives both individually and communally or corporately. Our life is interdependent. Our personality is made up of our body, mind, heart and soul, intellect and emotion. Each aspect of our life has its own part to play. At the end of each day’s creation in the beginning of the universe, God declared about all that he created: ‘Good. Everything in God’s creation was ‘Good’. Everything had a spiritual meaning before the fall of man. But when sin entered the world, things became different. This was due to the egoistic attitude in man. That is how man became God’s “enemy”. Matter and spirit, all were right in God’s sight before the introduction of sin. Holistic spirituality refers to integrating faith in all areas of life. There is to be no dichotomy or dualism between matter and spirit. Everything in God’s good creation has a spiritual value. Everything in our life needs to be viewed from a spiritual perspective. This requires a holistic transformation of how we see our world, our lives and all that we do and want to do with our lives and our conduct, how we relate to people, and to any other thing or object.

This perspective of holistic spirituality views every aspect of life as interrelated and as an opportunity to glorify the Creator, who made everything and everyone ‘Good’ and ‘Very good’. Everything is “value neutral”. But our selfish and worldly and egoistic nature is responsible for viewing things as ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ or ‘secular’ and ‘divine’ and the like. Our selfish nature makes us compartmentalise objects or things. We and our corrupt attitude separate and distinguish the terms ‘divine’ and ‘mundane’, ‘eternal’ and ‘temporal’, and ‘holy’ and ‘unholy’. This is how we use or abuse our world and our relationships. God created human beings in his ‘image’ and ‘likeness’. These mean that we were made with God’s moral or communicable attributes of love, holiness, spirituality, emotion, justice, free will, etc. These attributes God shared with humanity so that man can meaningfully relate to his Creator and, as such, also become a faithful steward of his creation for the well-being of man and the eventual glory and praise of God himself.

The Bible exhorts us to respect and love God. We are to love God with all our minds, hearts and strengths, and also love our neighbours as ourselves. The purpose of our worship of God, prayers and meditation for his strength and praising and exalting his holy name is to come close to him and also close to his creation and live in harmony with others. Not only some fixed date or time but every day or time in the calendar is holy. No special day or place is holier to God than others for our devotion to him. In fact, the Bible says that our bodies are holy. God’s Holy Spirit dwells in our bodies. So, we need to keep our minds and hearts clean and holy so that we may really feel the divine presence in our bodies, in our attitude.

A holistic approach views all our actions and conduct as one that submits to the divine will. So, it will help us achieve an authentically transformed life saturated in selfless love and consideration for others taken as part of the same world that we all share.

In our life’s journey in this world, we strengthen one another with the divine hope for us. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23-24).

Flesh and spirit co-exist in our body. The battle between them is timeless. An approach to holistic spirituality requires an inner transformation and spiritual awakening. We can achieve this only with divine guidance, which, in turn, can also be received and mutually shared among people. The battle between spirit and matter is also timeless. But God, who can help us overcome our predicament, is ever ready to empower us if we seek him. He created us, and he blesses us for the transformation of our lives. In St Paul’s words: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). We do well if we broaden our mental horizon and have the needed attitudinal transformation first of all in our own life.

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The writer is a Christian Theology teacher and Church leader