Remember those times in your life when you've felt emptiness? No, don't lay claim to them---they might indicate some psychological disorder or they might suggest you are too emotionally inclined. Just keep busy, instead . . . and quiet. There have been times when with all the activity and people and blessings of life, even I have felt empty.
Right now, for example. In my older age. I have more time, occasionally, to reflect. My discovery is that life has its tangible, palpable moments, but life also has its unfathomable holes. Sometimes, I'm "waiting for death"---the erasure of oneself from this temporal world---albeit, with a very real Christian faith and hope of a joy and reward in the spiritual world. Other times I'm occupying myself somewhat intensely with physical and material, earthly actions and reactions. But, eventually, though not overly often, the emptiness will return---I believe that it is an integral part of the human experience [the longing for God] and all people encounter it at different levels and respond to it in various ways.
One of those ways has always irritated me. It becomes most visible in our pretenses . . . our veneers, our charades, our cloaks. Affectation is everywhere about us today; you can't be alive without having to deal with it. The whole "political correctness" concept perfectly displays it---not being able to call things what they actually are or to use certain words in our communication. Matthew 23:5-7 catches the gist of the trend: "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men." Yeah, I know, overlook the tassels. Hypocrisy rules---some believe it hides them somehow from those moments of emptiness.
Another way some people deal with emptiness is hate. But, that's a topic for another day. I'd leave you with this: Embrace the emptiness; it just might bring you closer to God ! Hey, read that sentence one more time before you leave me.
One of those ways has always irritated me. It becomes most visible in our pretenses . . . our veneers, our charades, our cloaks. Affectation is everywhere about us today; you can't be alive without having to deal with it. The whole "political correctness" concept perfectly displays it---not being able to call things what they actually are or to use certain words in our communication. Matthew 23:5-7 catches the gist of the trend: "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men." Yeah, I know, overlook the tassels. Hypocrisy rules---some believe it hides them somehow from those moments of emptiness.
Another way some people deal with emptiness is hate. But, that's a topic for another day. I'd leave you with this: Embrace the emptiness; it just might bring you closer to God ! Hey, read that sentence one more time before you leave me.
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