Lately, I’ve been more and more shocked about how the western culture seems to be getting more vulgar and immoral all the time. For example, the things they show on TV and what the general public is forced to tolerate nowadays are repulsive. Like the world had gone mad or something. Yet the Bible reminds us there’s nothing new under the sun.

You’re addicted to thrills? What an empty life!
    The pursuit of pleasure is never satisfied.
(Proverbs 21:17, MSG,*)

This is how I interpret the situation: Like all people, you have this empty place in your soul and you try to fill it with anything that thrills you. Whether it is shopping, money, work, sex, drugs, entertainment, relationships, hobbies, you name it.

No matter how much you get, it will never be enough—
    hollow stomachs, empty hearts.
No matter how hard you work, you’ll have nothing to show for it—
    bankrupt lives, wasted souls.
(Micah 6:14, MSG,*)

And when it doesn’t work, you need more of your chosen drug. A bit more thrilling, something that would make you feel you’re alive again. Yet it never works. That empty place in your soul will never be filled by human endeavors.

What to do then? Are we doomed to live with emptiness?

Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—
    full of himself but soul-empty.
But the person in right standing before God
    through loyal and steady believing
    is fully alive, really alive.
(Habakuk 2:4, MSG,*)

Blessedly, God has provided the solution: himself. If we want to be really alive, to have a healthy heart, we need to turn back to God. If we don’t want to be soul-empty, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to enter our lives.

You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything. (Col. 2:10, MSG,*)

The only hope for the world is Jesus Christ. Only through him we can experience the desired fullness and completeness we all crave for.

Is the world’s situation hopeless? It might look like it. And it would be hopeless, it it were up to us to change it. But the hope we have in Christ is much more than wishful thinking. This visible world is not all there is. God is already at work behind the scenes. Jesus is even changing the hearts of his persecutors. The Holy Spirit is reviving the soul-empty thrill-seekers.

Here are the remaining questions only you can answer for: How do you fill that empty place in your soul? What do you want God to do with you? Pass by or make home in you? Leave alone or permeate every corner of your heart? Leave you to your own demises or be readied for eternity?

 

Dear God,
I come to you empty,
make your fullness come together for me too.
Because without you I am not satisfied.
Because without you I am forever empty.
Thank you for your grace-filled hope.
Come and do whatever you want with me,
just don’t ever leave me alone.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What do you do with that empty place in your soul? What do you want God to do with you?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you let God do whatever He wants with you!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of creationswap.com, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke.  Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday, and Faith Barista.