An Invitation to Fullness

Beautiful friend,

Do you feel empty? Are you lonely? Have you experienced loss? Are you walking through grief? Do you feel like something is missing, but you don't know what? Does the inside of you ache for more?

Every one of us can answer yes to at least one of these questions at some point in our lives. It's part of being human. We can't avoid pain and heartache. But we also don't have to face it alone. Today my heart aches for you to know that emptiness is never God's will for us.

Just months before I became a Christian, I sat in my dorm room window staring out into a rainy night at the lights of a Walgreen's parking lot. I felt completely empty. Cold. Just weeks into my freshman year, I'd contracted an unusually severe case of mono which had left me sliding in and out of consciousness in a hospital room just off campus. No one knew I was there. I was 18, so the hospital did not bother to notify my parents for several days. Following my hospitalization, I spent a month at home recuperating. Upon returning to school, I felt completely alone. Campus life had gone on without me. My new sorority had held dances, overnights, and other bonding events. I had missed out. I had no real connections with anyone. What was I even doing there? I certainly didn't know a god who could meet my needs. How many of us have had those moments? And maybe it's a lot longer than a moment.

This morning as I sat on my patio reading and journaling, I was struck by the number of times the word fullness is found in scripture. When I suddenly notice a particular word jumping out at me, I know it's time to stop and ponder its significance.

As I dug further, Ephesians 1:23 really grabbed me. Paul refers to the Church as the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. Well, my experience of the Body of Christ hasn't always felt like this. At its worst, it felt like a bunch of empty, hurting people puffing themselves up by sucking the life out of everyone around them. Not surprisingly, this left me unengaged and licking my numerous wounds. Maybe this has been your experience. Maybe you ran away from the Church because the very people who were supposed to love you were the same ones who kicked you in the teeth. Who could blame you for running away? Who could blame you for feeling empty and let down? Your experience inside the Church shouldn't leave you feeling like I did sitting in that dorm room window -- cold and alone.

And yet, as part of the Body of Christ, we are supposed to experience fullness. The problem is that the Church so rarely embodies the love that is God himself. Many of us who cut ourselves off from the Church also cut ourselves off from God. We may find ourselves asking how good God could actually be if the people who supposedly follow him are a bunch of creeps. But friend, don't let the failures of other humans be the reason for removing yourself from the One who is love, the One who wants to fill you.

God calls us to live in community -- and He himself IS community -- Father, Son, Holy Spirit. His is a community of perfect love and fullness, and it is this community into which we are called. This is the place from which we are to live. The more we live from this place, the more we are able to carry this love to those around us -- to expand this community of love right here on earth. When we are full, others benefit from the overflow. We get to be a vessel of his love, filling those around us. And this is what the Church should look like -- a place where the empty can come to be filled.

You see, we love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)  If we don't allow ourselves to be filled with his love, we can't possibly love others well. So much of the Church doesn't know it is loved! So many Christians are stuck at the cross, digging their heels in and refusing to step into resurrection. Friends, the cross is the place where we leave our sins, our burdens, our garbage. We aren't meant to stay there wallowing in our own filth. We are meant to leave all the junk behind so that we can be filled. Filled with love, from which flows joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Maybe you belong to a church where this is a reality. I rejoice with you! If not, I encourage you to let God be the one to fill you and then carry that love back into your hurting church. Bring forgiveness and hope. Bring encouragement and humility. When you feel empty or dry, go right back to your heavenly Father and ask for more. He is always willing for you to be full. This is the only way to see a Church that is healed and whole. And the hurting world very much needs a healed Church right now.

Will you accept the invitation?


Photo credit: Fred Moon