A God Shaped Hole
A reading for Wednesday, August 13, 2014: John 4:1-26.
There is a hole in our being, an empty place. Out of this hole comes fear and loneliness. A voice comes out of this hole that says, "you are not loved and you are not okay." We become aware of this hole in our being, and we are almost overwhelmed.
So we try and fill it with something, anything really. Alcohol, pills, sex, money, fame, power, control... sometimes even good things like art, music, literature, children, work, food and drink. We throw it all into the hole in hopes that it can be filled and we can silence the voice within us. We just want to be okay again. We just want to be loved. We are almost overwhelmed.
Truth is, there is only one thing that can fill what Blaise Pascal called a God shaped hole in your being and that's Jesus Christ. Nothing else will fit and so nothing else will work. Again, it's not an ethical value judgment on the worth of other things (some are good and some are not). It's just that nothing else is going to satisfy our being. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole. It's not going to fit so it's not going to work.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty." This is the path to our authentic life. It's the way to begin to understand that we are loved. It's the truth that we are okay and so is the world around us. It's the love of God the Father, through Jesus Christ the son, given and experienced through the Holy Spirit.
It's faith... and we are grateful.
There is a hole in our being, an empty place. Out of this hole comes fear and loneliness. A voice comes out of this hole that says, "you are not loved and you are not okay." We become aware of this hole in our being, and we are almost overwhelmed.
So we try and fill it with something, anything really. Alcohol, pills, sex, money, fame, power, control... sometimes even good things like art, music, literature, children, work, food and drink. We throw it all into the hole in hopes that it can be filled and we can silence the voice within us. We just want to be okay again. We just want to be loved. We are almost overwhelmed.
Truth is, there is only one thing that can fill what Blaise Pascal called a God shaped hole in your being and that's Jesus Christ. Nothing else will fit and so nothing else will work. Again, it's not an ethical value judgment on the worth of other things (some are good and some are not). It's just that nothing else is going to satisfy our being. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole. It's not going to fit so it's not going to work.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty." This is the path to our authentic life. It's the way to begin to understand that we are loved. It's the truth that we are okay and so is the world around us. It's the love of God the Father, through Jesus Christ the son, given and experienced through the Holy Spirit.
It's faith... and we are grateful.
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