The Void

"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." -Blaise Pascal

I've heard this Pascal quote many times, and even referenced it in talks I have given. Yesterday, in one of my classes, a large part of our discussion was devoted to this concept of "the void" in our lives. When I am honest with myself, I can admit that even though I do have a real relationship with God, I am not void of "the void." Although God is enough, I still experience a longing for more.

At times, this inner hunger has caused me to doubt the sufficiency of Christ in my life. I've sang praise songs like "All of you is more than enough for all of me" and still felt a groaning for more.

Last night our teacher said, "Engaging the groaning is a part of the restoration into the image of God. It acknowledges our humanity and dependency on Him." We are not in a perfect heaven yet. We live with one foot in the world and the other in eternity. We are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14.)

So how do we respond to this void? John Eldridge states that we have a few choices: To live in this void and be hungry for more of God OR to be an addict, and look everywhere else to fill our longings.

We cannot ignore this hunger. Without entering into the longing, we will continue to numb the pain with anything else we can find. Where are we looking to fill this void?