"An Acceptable Level Of Emptiness" - JR Everhart

At some point you have to break free of all the "church lies" that a life with Christ is 100% free of suffering and that you’ll always feel satisfied and fulfilled.  This is important because there are seasons where I’m just barely making it by the skin of my teeth.  If it’s not all out bloody war against my fleshly desires, it’s depression and loneliness.  It's exhausting! 

It’s like we’re forced to accept a certain level of emptiness in this life.  Our souls cry out every day to be reunited with our loved ones who have past and to finally go home to glory.  This world is dying and it’s trying to kill us in the process.  The shear resistance we have to endure each day from the enemy is mind boggling.  The curse of Adam and Eve consistently operates in our lives.  As Christians, we're working through thorns and thistles every day to scratch out a living which brings about heaps of stress and anxiety.  Not to mention both men & women constantly fighting against our own individual body’s hormonal desires.  Regarding women, I’ve witnessed their struggle firsthand as they endure through menopause, and those subsequent mood changes.  Yes, we are spiritually recreated in Christ and completely restored to God, but the physical curse of this world is still very much in place.  The Bible says all of creation is crying out for the curse to be lifted, and our humanity is accounted for within that statement.  We have victory in Jesus, but this dying world is still just that:  a dying world.  So, the fight rages on - day in and day out.  Remember though, the battle is the Lord's, but the war is ours to walk out.   

I realize this is a dark message, but it’s true.  And for those of us that have to climb out of the pit each day and try to stay focused on Jesus, it’s very hard.  No doubt, this isn’t a message precisely for every Christ follower because some cannot identify with the pervasiveness of what I'm describing here.  But for us ragamuffins, it’s a reality we wake up to each and every day.  There's an emptiness that haunts us, and subsequently attacks our pursuit / longing for peace.  Praise be to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!  Without him, there would be no hope of salvation from this world of destruction.