hole

Have you ever come across someone, friend, family, lover or even a stranger, who made your heart ache for the yearning inside them? We all have those areas inside us that feel empty, that we chase things to fill them with. Anything from shopping, to food, to sex, drugs and rock and roll, relationships, x rated images, money, power, even exercise. It's not all just "bad" stuff. Reading can be an escape. I mean, who doesn't love to crawl into a good book for a while? I know I do. I have those areas, those weaknesses too. But "things" never make me feel better, at least not in the long run. 

It's hard to see that empty place inside someone else, too. To see them ache or yearn for something, and what they find never really does the trick. My empathy kicks in because I know the pain of my ache, the lengths I have gone to fill a need, and the after affects of not finding the right thing. We all want to feel loved, valuable, worthy, attractive, capable, strong, encouraged, successful, included. Even when we are, we can still feel like we're not, or that it's not enough. To watch that in someone else makes me feel a little helpless. Even I feel lost. Lost in how to help, how to cure, how to make it all better and make the pain go away.

I had such an encounter today, and it kills me that I can't make it all better. Instantly a song came into my head, a song that I think of quite often, actually. I really only know the chorus, but it says it all.

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us

And a restless soul is searching.

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us

And it's a void only He can fill. 

                                        ~ Plumb - God-Shaped Hole

My internal reaction was instant. It was like a dagger to my heart, because my heart aches for their ache, their emptiness. And I feel like I know the answer but how do I get them to see that? To KNOW that, to know Him? I prayed, but sometimes it feels like prayer isn't enough. Probably because we want instant gratification. But I truly truly want this person to know God, to know wholeness, to experience restoration and the healing salve of God in their life. Because I know He brings that, if only we will take it. 

Lord, please hear my cries for this person. Call out to them in a way they cannot mistake. Help them to see and hear and answer your call, your invitation to wholeness. Jesus I ask that you would remove all fear or inhibition that might hold them back, that those would no longer be barriers to coming into a fuller relationship with you. Please let them see that their need, their ache, is of you and you alone. Orchestrate their surroundings and encounters so that they see you and hear your good words. God I ask for your forgiveness for my own lack of faith, my own fear of failure, my own fear that you are not enough. I ask for peace in knowing you are in control, and you have it all in your care. Lord, I know the plans you have for me, for us. Plans to prosper and not harm, to give us a hope and a future. Help us to call on you with all our heart, to pray to you, and that you will listen. You word says, "'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity.'" Set the captives free, Lord, set them free. In Jesus name, Amen.