Filling the Empty

I recognize, as I move through the morning routine, wiping counters and doling out chores and searching for socks in the Great Mound that exists in the laundry room, that I'm feeling a little off inside.

It's not a terrible thing. There hasn't been a tragedy. It's not an overwhelming sadness. It's not that kind of thing.

It feels more like an...empty.

I know I'm not empty. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. But today if feels that way.

 I can't sift it out completely - refine it until it's thin and pure enough to understand. Maybe it's because I've been a little too full to spend solid, quality time with the Lord (I suspect so). Maybe it's that I haven't been listening to the music that feeds and nourishes my soul. It could be that we're in that sort of militant place of getting our school/fall scheduled hammered out, and for a bit, it will be an "on to the next thing" sort of pace.

I'm not sure. Maybe a few things twisted together.

I just know that I want to be honest with my heart. And I want to be confident that the empty will be filled.

After all, as I Swiffer the floors and fill the day's clear, open lesson plan squares that wild scribbles that will be the boys' work, I remember that...

the Lord works with emptiness.

He spoke over a vast empty and creation was born.

He spoke into the empty of a cave that held no life - the void of death, and a breath-drawing man walked out.

He told tired, empty-handed fishermen to toss their nets over the edge of their boat once again and the bare nets filled with such a bounty of fish that took a mighty haul to get it inside.

I have every confidence that my own empty will be filled, brimming over, pressed full with life, too.

So - I call the boys down. It's time to start our day. There are things to do. Things to be accomplished. A half-million, maybe, or more (smile).

I'm not quite where I want to be yet.

But He's faithful. Powerful. Fully capable.

He provides.

And me?

In His grace, the fullness will come!

Thank you, Lord, for filling me when I feel empty. Amen.


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Writing News: I have a couple of devotions in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Wives.

It's available now.