That Empty Feeling

Just a quick note to get down for digital posterity my thoughts on emptiness and filling. This springboards off of the last post about absence and presence, but is a slightly different spin on it.

We often pray to be "filled with the Holy Spirit". We would like our lives to be filled with blessing, abundant, or "full" as in "he lived a full life." But in order to be filled we must first be empty. We need to empty out all the things that are taking up space that don't really need to be there.

I think of a garage. Somehow, garages always fill up with stuff we think we need, stuff we thing we're going to throw out or stuff that we don't want in our homes proper. Every once in a while, we need to clean out our garages or else there's so much junk that we can't even get in or out of the place. Blessing and filling is like that. We need to clear out some spiritual space (or rather, let God clear it out for us) in order to be filled with the new, good stuff.

Just like a garage, we hold onto things for far too long even if they take up space and we haven't used them in years. We need to have ears to hear God saying "get rid of that old, ratty thing" and the obedience and faith to do it. God has something better in store.

There is more to this than I am able to express, so maybe I'll continue on this when I have some more coherent thoughts. Until then, be encouraged. When you are empty, God wants to fill you up. You didn't really need that box of ripped t-shirts, anyway.