The last few Chaplain’s Corners have been about integrity. We spoke of the need for single-minded focus on the pursuit of integrity. We learned that the definition of integrity includes incorruptibility, soundness, and completeness. Today I’ll focus on soundness, using this verse: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

When I taught middle schoolers in Sunday School, this verse was one of the key verses that I always taught. However, this verse is not just for kids. It applies to each of us until the day we die. It references growth, and I love that this instruction for growth is four dimensional.

When we think about these dimensions of life, we sometimes think of balance, as in “life balance.” Once while participating on a panel of women leaders, I was asked how I managed to accomplish life balance. I laughed and said I had not managed to accomplish life balance, and it was not necessarily my intention or goal as the way to live my life. (I think the audience of women was shocked that I dared admit this.)  As a wife, mother, and business-owner as well as being very involved in my church, I was a very busy woman. However, as I explained, my family was my life, my work was my life, my church was my life, and to manage all that, I also had to take care of myself. I wasn’t always the best at all of it, but I could not imagine forsaking one for the other.

You see, the paradigm of “life balance” implies compartmentalizing all these dimensions; however, as the verse above implies, a preferred paradigm is an integrated life where we pursue all four dimensions with a single-minded focus and goal of being more Christ-like. Here’s what the Bible has to say:

(1) Growth in physical being (stature:  Although Daniel could have had anything he wanted to eat and drink, he asked to be able to observe the strict Hebrew diet. And Paul used many athletic comparisons such as boxing and running, with a goal of staying fit for duty. Growth in physical being (stature:  Although Daniel could have had anything he wanted to eat and drink, he asked to be able to observe the strict Hebrew diet. And Paul used many athletic comparisons such as boxing and running, with a goal of staying fit for duty.

a. “But Daniel determined that he would not defile himself by eating the king’s food or drinking his wine, so he asked the head of the palace staff to exempt him from the royal diet….’Try us out for ten days on a simple diet of vegetables and water. Then compare us with the young men who eat from the royal menu. Make your decision on the basis of what you see’…. At the end of the ten days they looked better and more robust than all the others who had been eating from the royal menu. So the steward continued to exempt them from the royal menu of food and drink and served them only vegetables” (Daniel1:8-16)

b. “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

c. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

(2) Growth in knowledge and wisdom: God demonstrated through Daniel’s commitment and Peter’s ministry the blessings that would follow, including skill and maturity.

a. “God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life” (Daniel 1:17).

b. “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God” (Hebrews 6:1).

c. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation….” (1 Peter 2:2-3).

d. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).

(3) Relational growth (favor with man):  Jesus himself was a model for developing strong relationships as we read about how he lived and worked and relaxed with his disciples and his closest friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

a. “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5).

b. “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

(4) Spiritual growth (favor with God):

a. “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).

A thing, or a person, is not sound, unless every part is functioning optimally and working together as a system. I think a pretty good analogy might be with the four tires on a car. I’m no mechanic, so you are welcome to debate this (as long as you come up with a better analogy), but whoever goes and just gets one tire balanced? Is that even possible? But if we spend our entire spare time working out to be physically fit, or if we never work out, we are going to be out of alignment. And who cares if the tires are balanced if the engine doesn’t work? It’s just no good to be mightily physically fit but without biblical wisdom. It’s no good to have supreme knowledge and wisdom, but no relationships with which to share it. And it’s worthless long term to have human relationships without the foundation of a Godly relationship on which to build. We should strive for soundness by pursuing growth all four dimensions, striving to be like Jesus in every way.

The point I want to make about all of this is the importance of integrating growth in all four dimensions–to the extent humanly possible given the mind, body, and environment God has placed us in–to develop into sound, well-rounded, mature, effective Christ-followers with integrity.

In Christ,

Judy