To be filled...

I'm making a quick appearance to remind those of you who have faithfully checked this silly electronic communicative page - that I'm still living and moving and breathing - in the name of Jesus.

Life looks quite a bit different today than it did only a few short months ago. How many of you can say that your life too looks quite different than you'd hoped or dreamed? Are you doing what you dreamed you'd do when you were five years old? What about what you dreamed of just 3 months ago as you made your new years resolutions? Many older wiser people have shared with me that their lives have turned out completely different than when they were youngin's on the road of life.

Life is such a journey. We travel. We learn. We live. We love. We gather people and wisdom. Yet we walk so freely and so closely to His heart that we remember the journey is His and we're following Him. How good it is to follow and not lead on this narrow path.

I was reminded in church today about being filled with God on this journey. We are to be a picture to the world of God. As a teacher made her way around the room as her class was drawing pictures of their most prized possessions she came finally to Billy. As she looked at his page she asked him, "Billy, what are you drawing"...Billy said, "Well, I'm drawing a picture of God"..."That's impossible", the teacher replied, "We can't know what God looks like"...The little boy said, "Yeah, I know. But that's why I'm drawing it. When I'm done we'll all know what he looks like". I want to be a picture of God in this world.

I believe there is a space in us which only God can fill. Blaise Pascal once gave a remarkable insight on the life of us humans,“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus”
Jesus alone is the only thing that can fill that void in us.

As I was washing my hair this morning I was reading the conditioner bottle. The label said, "Herbal Essence - for normal hair". You see, we are pressured even by the smallest things to fight for the "normal" - to get just the right prescription for our individual needs. Whatever makes us normal that's what we seek after: SUV'S, books about being "Green", private schooling for our kids (not mine, I don't have any!), a new and better paying job so that we can have more and more of what makes us seem "normal". We are looking every and any place but to the One who can fill us for eternity.

But what is normal? Pascal was wise when he implied that "normal" is to be filled with the creator. To have that aching pain in our souls, which has been pounding since the Fall, filled with God's presence, promises, and faithfulness.

I've been reading Richard Foster's book, "Freedom of Simplicity". You ought to read it. I'm not really suggesting you read it because I could suggest it all day, I'm implying that you really should not go on without reading it. You ought to. Simplicity is intricate...but what I'm gaining from Foster's wisdom is the truth that the simpler our lives are emotionally, physically, financially, etc. the closer we get to really filling this God shaped vacuum in our hearts - with Jesus.

Daily I fight to fill this vacuum with the Lord's promises, his manna, and his unending goodness.

Jesus alone can fill and satisfy for eternity.

Be filled and blessed as you continue your journey.