When Emptying Out Isn't Enough

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According to the Four Noble Truths, the goal of Buddhism is to reach enlightenment by emptying yourself of the things that cause desire and that thereby lead to suffering. In other words, you must detach or empty yourself in order to reach Nirvana. And what is Nirvana? It is emptiness, "nothingness" or ceasing to exist. That is the goal of Buddhism—to totally empty oneself out into the universe.

Perhaps that sounds attractive to you. In all honesty, there are days when emptying yourself out into nothingness might be a nice alternative to the feelings of stress, exhaustion & pessimism that you might go through. For folks who feel constant pain and who sense the pain of others, there’s likely to be a recurring desire to shake free from these feelings.

The Christian faith also teaches the importance of emptying. But there are significant differences in this regard between Christianity and Buddhism. Emptying oneself is not the goal of being a Christian. The objective of the Christian life is to be filled with God's goodness. Emptying occurs not for the sake of emptying but for the sake of being filled.

Jesus told a short parable in Matthew 12:43-45, "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation."

Cleansing your life from "bad stuff" is a great step. When you are able to stop smoking or end an addiction, that's a fantastic stride we can all cheer for. If you finally say goodbye to a dysfunctional and abusive relationship that was destroying you inside and out, we can all celebrate your decision to get rid of something that was killing you. Emptying is good!

But emptying is just one step for a Christian in the bigger process of spiritual formation. Paul writes, "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph 2:18). A Christian should definitely allow God to clean up and clean out the messes in your life. But emptying out isn't enough. You also need to be filled with good things from God. Otherwise, the lingering emptiness will be an invitation for bad things to come storming back into your life in an even greater way.

Do you think the Christian life is one of emptying? If you think following Jesus is just about getting rid of things, then you will eventually fall back into your old life. In one sense, the battle against evil was won when you turned to Christ. In that moment God drove out Satan and filled you with his Spirit. The sign of this change is your place in the people of God. Yet this emptying and filling also takes place gradually over a long period of time. The old life will still haunt you well into your Christian life. Your past mistakes and shortcomings can still cause problems in your new life as you allow God to slowly empty you of the old and fill you with the new. But don't give up. Because emptying out isn't enough; it's just a part of the process.

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