Filling the Void Inside

Each one of us may have times in our lives when we feel a void inside. It’s like a big empty place in the pit of our stomach.  Sometimes we try to ignore it completely. Most of the time we try to fill it with something like people in our lives or with possessions to absorb our attention on activities that in our society may represent success.

Living a success-oriented life may, for a time, fill the void. It certainly gives us a way to try to fill it.
What of the values we accept for ourselves to maintain success:
1. Success at any price
2. Seek out “friends” who can help us up the ladder
3. Be seen at the right places in the right attire even if we can’t afford it
4. Work first, family and marriage if time allows.
 Any of these game plans for success ignore the question: what happens if we fail?

 
If success brings failure

What do we have to fall back on if success at any price brings failure? Who do we turn to if our only “friends” were our step ladders upward? Where are they when we are down? Do any of the outward visible ways of a “successful” person (possessions et al.) help us when we are down or do they become a way to avoid loss and the gaping void inside? Do alcohol and/or drugs, that always seem to hang around success-oriented lifestyles, become the escape to fill the void? Having ignored our family for success, will they be there for us in our failure to fill the void?

I would suggest that at a time of failure or at a time of success when we still feel that void, we need to ask ourselves some important questions.

Have the values I’ve been living by brought me to this place be it success or failure? If these values are so important to me, why do I still feel like something is missing in my life?

In a time of failure in my life, who could I turn to? Where were the “friends” that rode my wave of success with me? What do I have within me to get me through this?

Hopefully, a time will come when the question we face will be: what really gives meaning to my life? What’s missing? I feel that empty place inside; there has to be more.

We all come from different experiences with organized religion. Some may have grown up with no choice but to be in church, which later led us to rebel and leave. Some may have had a casual relationship, which has left little to hang onto. Some may have had no experience or have been taught to deny. Some may have had a good experience but put it aside when success came or were embarrassed to return in hard times.

A man is standing at a window in a treatment hospital. As he looks out into the woods, he is filled with a sense of peace and serenity he has never experience before. The void inside is filled with the realization that God loves you.  With these words, he comes to understand that all the living beyond his means, all the alcohol he had consumed, none of these things could fill the void. Only the simple words: God loves you, could do that.

Consider then these questions. Where is God in your life? Where is Jesus in your life? How do I find them? What can happen if I do?

Before you try to answer them, ask yourself if you are ready to find a way to live with peace in your heart that may make all the stuff you filled your life with meaningless.

Worth a try

If you are tired of that void inside, it’s certainly worth a try to seek out the answers.

With God in your life, with Jesus at your side, you will find new horizons opening for you. You will discover the joy of their love for you. You will find peace. Reach out to others you see who have found the way to fill the void inside.

Know always that God loves you. Take the word of the guy at the window.

by Deacon Ned Howe