Practice 3: Emptiness
There’s nothing that competes with the motivation of boredom. When I first learned to play the guitar, I wrote a song called “I am so bored.” I don’t remember much of it, but the chorus went something like this: I am so bored. Oh lord won’t you take me away from here. Insert emo teenage angst here. Couple that with a shaved pony tail hair cut and free time and it’s the making of a hit.
What if we began looking at all our time—busy-ness and boredom—as a gift. A chance for us to get to know more about God. The practice of emptiness is not about feeling nothing, but rather about disposing of our own glamour and need for attention and utilizing the free will God gave us. I’m not saying that every spare moment you should be reading the Bible or praying, but using what God has given you.
How often have we tried to fill ourselves up with something to make ourselves feel better without simply posing the question to God “why did you bring me to this moment right now?” The dangerous part to this is that when we selfishly fill ourselves up– be that our time or relationships—we’re listening to a lie that says “it will last”. Well, it doesn’t. We know this—we’ve experienced it. It actually expands our appetite and now it takes more and more for us to feel filled up.
Read Luke 12:22-34
What Jesus is teaching us here is to empty ourselves of the needs we think have and focus on the heart of God. What’s on your heart right now? What do you want to do at this instant? Now what do you think God wants to do with you right now? Where do these things overlap? Often the activities we want to do spring out of desires God has given us. Rather than steal them from you, he wants you to experience them even greater!
There’s nothing that competes with the motivation of boredom. When I first learned to play the guitar, I wrote a song called “I am so bored.” I don’t remember much of it, but the chorus went something like this: I am so bored. Oh lord won’t you take me away from here. Insert emo teenage angst here. Couple that with a shaved pony tail hair cut and free time and it’s the making of a hit.
What if we began looking at all our time—busy-ness and boredom—as a gift. A chance for us to get to know more about God. The practice of emptiness is not about feeling nothing, but rather about disposing of our own glamour and need for attention and utilizing the free will God gave us. I’m not saying that every spare moment you should be reading the Bible or praying, but using what God has given you.
How often have we tried to fill ourselves up with something to make ourselves feel better without simply posing the question to God “why did you bring me to this moment right now?” The dangerous part to this is that when we selfishly fill ourselves up– be that our time or relationships—we’re listening to a lie that says “it will last”. Well, it doesn’t. We know this—we’ve experienced it. It actually expands our appetite and now it takes more and more for us to feel filled up.
Read Luke 12:22-34
What Jesus is teaching us here is to empty ourselves of the needs we think have and focus on the heart of God. What’s on your heart right now? What do you want to do at this instant? Now what do you think God wants to do with you right now? Where do these things overlap? Often the activities we want to do spring out of desires God has given us. Rather than steal them from you, he wants you to experience them even greater!
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