Earlier in the week, I had a momentary vision of a bunch of people … friends and family members chained to the remains of an antiquated chunk of history. The remains of the top of a massive support column was now secured to a large concrete pad, and though from another time and former glory it was a fixed part of the lives of the individuals in the vision(of whom I was one). We were sightseeing and really couldn't see much because of the restrictive movement caused by the chains. Strange thing though, we seemed oblivious to the chains, and we would stop where the chains would hinder us. We would use the chains' hindrances as a comfortable excuse for the loss of vision for the moment.
(Okay, maybe this is something but let's not get too distracted ...That was earlier in the week and this is now … I am stuck with nothing!)
Job 26: 7 - “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”
Do you realize that in the portion of the life of Job that we find in Scripture, that for 37 of the 42 chapters of the snap shot of his life... He had nothing? Oh, I know that there could be theological and intellectual arguments that could be caused by that question but please hear me out and there may be a blessing for us all tied to the end of this writ.
The reality of Job's life was chained to the antiquity of the human predicament. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. He had loss of loved ones, loss of wealth, loss of health, loss of trust, loss of reputation, loss of respect, loss of the appearance of goodness, loss of soundness, loss of peace, loss of comfort, the separation and the grief that accompanied the loss … but to to grapple with finding something that could be done about the loss, separation and the grief … He had nothing. Nothing until God stepped in to Job's moment. From chapter 38 and on – God fills the nothing.
We are all chained to some extent to what is left of any former glory. We are all challenged by our circumstances that keep taking us to moments of being stuck with “nothing”. We try our best to shrug off the moments or tell ourselves “this too will pass”... but we do this to the detriment of the greatest relationship in all of eternity.
The God who stretches, bends and forms direction over the empty places of life wants to creatively fabricate worth over our “nothing”. The God who hangs the massive substance of the whole Earth on nothing wants to hang purposeful substance on your moments when you have nothing.
Like the folks in the glimpse of the earlier thought this week, the chains of nothing will continue to limit our vision by holding us back from seeing what is in and beyond the moments when we feel we are left with nothing. God is in the delays, God is in the exhaustion, God is in the loss, God is in the defeat, God is in the separation, God is in the grief, God is in the isolation, God is in the confusion, God is in the disappointment, … when we feel “We've got nothing!” be encouraged; God is in the nothing.
Don't be satisfied with the Nothing, unless God is filling it. Luke 15:5
HLFA,
Jeff