Overwhelming All-Ness

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col. 1: 15-20).

Look at the bolded words in this passage:  in these six verses, we find seven “alls” and one “everything,” i.e. eight references to totality.  I didn’t have room on the page to include Col. 1: 3-14, but there are eight more totality references in those verses.  Paul is either obsessed with exaggeration or he knows a profound truth that we need to ponder. 

I vote for pondering profound truth.  But how do we ponder overwhelming all-ness? 

Years ago I was taught that when one is overwhelmed, one breaks the situation down into its constituent parts and deals with one part at a time.  So, to begin our meditations on the “All things held in Christ” theme this year, I’ll name a three parts of the all-ness, and challenge you to choose one of them to focus on during this coming week (or beyond).

1.      Christ is Lord of every part of my life.  There are some parts that I try hard to keep him out of, and in those parts of my life I am a practical atheist.  That is, I say I’m a Christian but I’m not a practicing one in that area.  In what area of your life are you a practical atheist?  Are you ready to surrender it to the Lord of all?

2.      He is head of “the church,” which includes ALL believers of every shape, colour and size who confess that He is Lord.  Do you dishonour the “allness” of this community in any way (perhaps unintentionally)?  Or do you celebrate the “allness” of Christ’s community and seek to build it up?

3.      Our future is held together in Christ.  For many of us, pondering our future evokes the paradox of dreaming wonderful dreams and feeling paralyzing anxieties.  University life involves a unique weaving together of past, present and future.  How might you focus your future dreams and anxieties on the One who holds it in his hands? 

True confessions:  a week ago a passing comment from a friend unintentionally alerted me to an area of practical atheism in my own life, an area where I was allowing anger to dominate instead of the Holy Spirit.  That same day I made a resolution to repent and to walk in a new way.  Soon I realized that this was more easily said than done.  It’s like weeding:  some times the ‘above ground” weed is removed but the roots remain, and, when it comes to sin, removing those roots is a longterm, prayerfully persevering day-by-day process.  That tiny bit of Christ’s “all-ness” – repentance from practical atheism -- is my focus, one that will take a lot more than one week for me. 

What about you?  Which of these three bits of “all-ness” are you called to focus on?