I HAVE HOLES in my soul. So do you.

These holes are deep places of emptiness where we have pain.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh I need relief now.

How did I get in this fix? How do others? And what about you?

Everyone has experienced abandonment and rejection by important people around us. The abandonment and rejection may be relatively minor, and so the hole measures the width of, say, a baseball. Examples: getting “dumped” by a friend or passed over for a promotion. Or the abandonment and rejection may have Grand Canyon proportions, and the hole is huge. Examples: divorce by parents, sexual abuse, death of a parent, or an alcoholic home.

The pain goes deeper.

and

deeper

into the past.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, humankind fell out of its secure place of belonging with God and into self-absorbed isolation. Though profoundly lonely, we keep God at an arm’s length.

Why? We don’t trust him enough to risk interacting with him personally.

Sure, we pray and go to church, maybe even read the Bible every morning or attend a small group.

But do I really, really trust him.

Therein lies the answer to my hole-y problem. Maybe yours too.

Despite my feelings, I must STEP OUT in faith and chose to ACT on the goodness of God that I risk to believe in.

Then as I DRAW CLOSER to him and DEEPEN my knowledge of him, I LEARN TO TRUST more and more deeply. I can know our God when I MAKE SPACE in my life to cultivate intimacy with our heavenly Father.

But stepping out in faith every day is tough. Even tougher is making space to spend time talking to God about what is on my heart and listening to him.

My excuse: I’m too busy!

Or am I?

Maybe my priorities are messed up. Maybe I’ve been duped by the devil and erroneously believe God doesn’t care.

The truth: God is good. He cares. Our enemy is a liar.

And the only way I’ll fill my holes is to forsake fear for faith

And recognize busyness compounds my hole-y-ness.

And give God my all.

Gulp!

You Are Loved, Lucy