You complete me

In 1996 the movie Jerry Maguire made this simple little phrase famous: you complete me.
You remember the line. Jerry Maquire (aka Tom Cruise) says in the film, "I love you. You…you complete me. And I just…" And before he can finish we all remember what Renee Zellweger says, right? "Shut up… just shut up… you had me at hello."
These lines sound so corny when you type them out letter by letter but in the context of a romantic comedy/drama/chick-flick, they were just the ticket to pull on the heart strings of women everywhere. The entertainment industry banks on these types of one liners. Women are suckers for a man begging on his knees and since it is such a rarity in reality they have to get their fix at the movie theater.
Unfortunately these types of movie fantasies only further to disappoint the lonely heart. The women longing to hear such words leaves with a bigger hole that she yearns to have filled. The clever plot and fairy tale ending do nothing to ease the aching heart. All they do is perpetuate the dilemma. The woman still wants someone who speaks those words to her. She still wants to complete someone. She still wants to be complete because she is united with her Prince Charming.
What a sad glimpse into the human heart. We strive to be complete. Some try to find it in love, in the uniting of two lives or the embrace of a lover. Some believe that by finding a special someone they will, at last, be satisfied in their own self. They must first find that other person, their "other half" in order to be a whole.
Others look for completeness in work, success, money or fame. They want accolades and diplomas to show that they've made it and that they are worth something. Some men and women work to the point of exhaustion in an attempt to make a name for themselves or they want to secure a bank account, all so that they can feel satisfied. They simply cannot be complete until they have reached their definition of success. Failure to achieve their goal makes them a failure, worthless in their eyes.
Beloved, I don't want to find my completeness in the things this world has to offer. I don't want my wholeness to come from another human being and the flawed love they may offer. I don't want my completeness to come in a bank account or career. I don't want my completeness to come from reaching a higher level of education or being a household name.
I want to be complete in Christ. I want Christ to complete me.
Chasing after the things of this world will always leave me coming back dry and empty. I will never feel satisfied. My heart will never feel at rest and peace when it is only feeding on what this world has to offer.
To be complete is to make something whole or perfect. There is no way that the world can accomplish that for me. Even this earth's greatest attempts at completeness will always fall short. There will always be another dollar to chase, another degree to obtain, another award to strive for. Human love is always imperfect, leaving us disappointed. The world will always scream "more, more, more." Buy more, be more, try more, experience more.
I don't want to miss the point of my entire existence because I'm looking at the successes the world wants me to run after. I want to look at Christ and find my completeness, my wholeness, my purpose and worth in who He is and who He has created me to be.
I want to live in the light of Colossians 2:10: "and you are complete in HIM."
Every day I can strive for the things of this world to make me whole. But I might as well be chasing after the wind. Christ and Christ alone can complete me. Until He is my portion and my ALL I will never be truly satisfied. The rest of the stuff of this world will be as filthy rags.
But when Christ is my all He makes my heart whole and filled to the overflowing. I am complete in Him. I am enough because of who He is, not because of what I have accomplished. My life has worth and purpose because I am His beloved, not because I have achieved what the world has stamped as "success".
I, too, love those words spoken in Jerry Maguire… you complete me. But not because I long to hear them from a man or want to find their fulfillment in the ways of this world. No, I love those words because I can claim them now as I speak them to my heavenly Father. Christ completes me. You, dear Jesus, complete me.