Empty or Full

I can absolutely remember the point in my life when I did not believe in God. I had been exposed to a good bit of religion, as a child and a young adult. Nothing will convince you quicker there is no God than religion! I had tried several things and lived very wordly when my brain findly took over any hope for my soul. My brain laid it out there. God...really? Someone-thing-person just poofed us into existence? All of creation just...ta da! I finally didn't buy it. I decided there was no God. We were born. Why? I had no idea, but as cells continue to split and grow so did the human cycle. We would live our life, die, and then be worm food. I was O.K. With that...very simple, scientific, practical. At that point in my life, not only had I reached hopelessness, I had accepted it. Whew! I was glad to have figured all that out and reached an intelligent conclusion. Now, I could just go through the motions of living, whatever that meant, and die.

That is all there is without God. Right? A schedule, an endless list of events...some good times...some bad times. Without God, there is really no one to please other than yourself or someone you hope to please you. With this philosophy, I experienced the greatest emptiness, pointlessness, despair,and anxiety. That was confusing to me. Why be anxious when there is no point to life?

Aaahhh...but there is a point...only one. The depressing thing about my new philosophy was that, well, it was depressing. But, why in the world was it depressing when it released me from any duty or expectation? L-O-V-E! There were people in my life whom I loved...a few I loved greatly. I didn't mind being worm food, but it made me sad to think that for others. Love also drove me to care, to hope in people, to want to live.

See, it is true God is love. He most certainly, absolutely, without question exists. God is the fullness of life. He is the point. He is the reason. With God, you still have what seems like and endless schedule, but you can enjoy those activities. You still live and die, but with a joy and a purpose. God fills you, when you invite Him in. When you decide to leap, to buy in, to step across the line of faith and believe even though you don't see. When that happens light replaces darkness; peace replaces anxiety; forgiveness replaces revenge; love for others replaces love of self.

God is a wave of love, a flood of purpose, a light in darkenss. God is reason instead of insanity, right instead of wrong, life instead of death. God doesn't just give life here, but also in another dimension...in a time and place without limits of the temporary here and now.

Pick up your cross and follow Him.