Many people today are looking, even seeking, for the thing or things that will fill the void and emptiness in their lives. We often think that if only we had this thing or that thing, then the hollowness that encompasses our very being would be filled, and everything would be okay. Yet, the reality is that it won’t be okay. We could have all our desires met, and the emptiness filled for a moment or two, and then the thing we so desired would quickly lose its sparkle, and there would be something else that we desperately needed to fill the void.
Now, it would be simple to say that only God can fill that void. Yet, the reality if we seek God to fill that void, to deal with the emptiness in our lives or to overcome the hollowness that encompasses us then we end up turning God into the ‘thing’ that we desire. Then after a while, God will also lose his sparkle, and we will be seeking something new something.
In reality, God does not and will not come to us on that basis. When God encounters us, it is not with the intent of meeting our needs or filling the void within us, although he does so. God encounters us for the sole purpose of radically transforming us and changing our desires rather than meeting them. That is what it means to be a new creation in Jesus Christ. God comes to us so that we understand and experience the world from the perspective of the kingdom and reign of God. The result is that our old desires and idolatries are cast aside, and the one whose kingdom has come and will be consummated in the person of Jesus Christ, radically transforms the orientation of our lives.
