"The God Void"

“The God Void”

 

As a teenager I worked at two Christian camps over four summers. These experiences proved to be major life-shapers (in fact, God called me into ministry during one of these times). One day during the course of my duties I was asked to replenish an empty sugar bowl. I did—but unknowingly filled it with salt! I had a clue that all wasn’t well when I saw strange facial expressions on those seated at the table. It was the right color and consistency but not the same thing at all!

Let me pose a hypothetical situation. Say you go out to start your car some morning and notice the fuel gauge registers empty. You’re in a hurry and don’t have time to stop for gas. So you get out your garden hose, uncap the tank, and “fill ‘er up.” What would happen? The needle would advance to the full mark. But would the car move? Why? Much as we’d like it to the wrong stuff was in the tank.

God has created each of us to have a relationship with Him (“It is [God] who has made us, and we are his….”—Psalm 100:3; “God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”—John 3:16). Accordingly, we all have a spiritual dimension that only He can fill (“…It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.”—Job 32:8). Just as salt couldn’t take the place of sugar or water gasoline, other “stuff” can’t fill the God void in any of us. We can try (and God may allow us to) but in the end we’ll reap what we sow (see Galatians 6:7).

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). “Full” is a translation of a Greek word meaning “going beyond.” In other words, He wants us to have more than ordinary, humdrum lives. And that’s only possible as the place in us reserved for God is filled with Him and His desires for us.

What’s in your God void? What’s in mine?

 

Blessings!

Jim McMillan