How Has Empty Impacted Your Life?

If you know me personally, you’ll know that I’m not a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve kind of girl.

Neither am I one who cries often.

But empty has a way of breaking a girl down.

Empty.

You can hardly hear the word without wincing.

If you’ve ever been touched by empty, you’ll understand.

It seems like pain and empty walk hand in hand.

Perhaps it’s because life is just not meant to be that way.

It's not meant to be empty.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  Genesis 1:2

God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Genesis 1: 31

Empty is unnatural, abnormal, and foreign.

And its painful stripping never leaves us the way it met us.

Looking back, I remember the tears that poured each time I was visited by empty.

When I saw my father’s empty, vacant body, I cried.

When the boat returned empty, devoid of life, I cried.

When I stared at the empty, barren landscape, I cried.

And there were more, but I don’t need to go on, I’m sure you have your own.

Times when you have looked up and found empty staring right back at you. When you’ve tucked your tail between your legs and retreated in fear and silence.

Or perhaps empty is the way you feel inside, and no matter how you’ve tried or wished it away it lingers long.

Empty.

Destitute. Vacant. Hollow. Meaningless. Hungry. Deprived of hope.

There seems to be no positive connotation to empty.

But…

There’s another empty.

As we ponder another yearly celebration of Christ’s resurrection, it’s the empty I want to remember: the empty tomb of Jesus.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures... 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15: 21-22

This empty shouts of victory and not defeat! Freedom and not fear! Hope and not despair!

I want to linger long inside this empty . . . to always remember and never forget.  It's not like any empty I’ve experienced before. It fills us up and gives us purpose, passion, and peace.

This is the empty that destroys my empty and infuses me with hope and new life. An empty that declares that my faith is by no means empty!

It is true that we don’t ever come out of empty the way we went in; it changes us.

But can't we choose which empty impacts us the most?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him on his right hand in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 1:18-20

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What about you?

How has emptiness impacted your life? Are you damaged or restored?

Damaged by the hollow emptiness felt so often in this life?

Or restored by the powerful empty we celebrate at Easter?

Why not take some time to consider 

just what the empty tomb of Jesus really means to you?

Don’t be surprised if you shed a tear or two, tears of joy and relief.

I'm speaking from experience, my friend; empty has a way of breaking us down. 

Blessings as you linger,

Carlie

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How Has Empty Impacted Your Life?