Hollow Noise

Again, sorry it's been so long, but I should be back in routine now... hopefully...

Lorie and I are finally moved out of the parsonage. We had everything out before, but we wanted to go back and clean properly (it was a little hard to do at 2:30 in the morning) so we did it the other day.

While there I noticed something. It started in the garage, but it was also in the entire house. There was an echo. There was a hollow sound. It seemed like everywhere in the house you were in a cave. Now I hadn't noticed that while all our stuff was there, the physics reason being the sound was being absorbed by furniture and the like. But it made me think a little. Emptiness sounds hollow.

I know that doesn't seem like a great epiphany, but I started to wonder how it fit into our everyday lives. Have you ever talked with someone whose words just sounded hollow? Or more to the point, have you sounded that way? Just shallow, hollow conversation with no substance (generally about oneself)? Perhaps there's a reason to it, perhaps they are empty on the inside.

Do I mean this in a degrading way? No, not at all. But if someone does not know the true meaning of life they will inevitably try to find some other way to fill the void. All too often, it doesn't work and life sounds hollow. If you know someone who sounds hollow, instead of getting annoyed or even trying to avoid them, what about trying to fill the void? Telling them they are loved for who they are, telling them there is Someone who is willing to love them even more? And if you think it's you, maybe it's time to refocus a little and get priorities back on Who they belong.

After all, John 10:10 tells us that God wants us to have an abundant life, or as some translations put it, life to the full. Let's all do what we can to have a full life, and more importantly, help those who don't know there is a God that loves them be introduced to Him so He can start to fill their lives too.

T