Begin with Emptiness

Begin with Emptiness

Most of us long for transformation but are afraid to change. Yet spiritual formation begins when we empty our lives. Our spiritual formation begins not with fullness but with emptiness. That’s the way we follow Jesus, who “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7). Even Jesus had to make space for God’s action in his life. He had a privileged status, but he relinquished it; he let it go. It’s the same with us. We have to empty ourselves. Only then can we begin to be filled up with the blessings of God. What do we mean by emptying ourselves? How can we connect with this need to give ourselves away? Let’s look first at the figure of Abraham. Abraham began by departing, by leaving home in response to God’s command. His departure wasn’t just a matter of location. He had to abandon whatever he knew best: his safe haven, his comfort zone. This is what God is asking us to do as well. He wants us to let go of our old country and enter into the new life he has in mind for us. But abandoning our comfort zones can be terrifying. When we let go of the world we know, we’re going to experience pain, suffering and fear.

Many of us who are Korean know what it is like to leave a homeland. We know our own stories and those of others, describing what it is to leave the place we knew best. What a land journey we’ve made! But our spiritual journey isn’t only geographic. It’s
much more than traveling in time and space. Departing isn’t only a matter of location. It’s not just leaving one place to go to another. The letting go takes place in the spiritual realm. That is where the deeper journey is made. This deeper journey is a life-passage of abandonment: letting go of our old ways to find the new; emptying ourselves as preparation for receiving the grace God will pour into us.

Abraham can encourage us when we see how he trusted in God.He was ordered to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Isaac was the promise of God. He was God’s promise fulfilled. And so he became Abraham’s love, his passion. But it seems that his love for his son took over his heart, taking precedence over his love for God. So
God’s command to sacrifice the boy was really a call for Abraham to refocus his heart on God. Abraham had to empty his heart. He had filled his heart with something other than God. And when he did so, he made room, room for God’s abundant blessing. He became a friend of God through surrender.

Abraham is the first biblical story about relinquishment, but certainly not the last. He tasted what God the Father would experience when he allowed his Son to die on the cross. The Father’s heart was filled with the Son he loved, but he emptied his heart for our sakes to gain the salvation of humankind. In this same way many great leaders became God’s servants.They emptied themselves, abandoned themselves, filled their hearts with nothing but God. And when they departed for the next world, we found the great imprints they left in this world.

Recall the story of Moses. He relinquished his right to be the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and what happened? He became a prophet of God. Remember the apostles who followed Jesus. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people” (Matthew 4:19). And what did they do? They abandoned their boats and their fathers’ ways. And what did they gain? The kingdom of heaven.We too must open our hands and let go. For the sake of eternal blessings, we must give up earthly things.The great missionary Jim Elliot said it well. People who exchange what they can’t keep to gain what they can’t lose are no fools. Are our hands clasped too tightly around what we already have? Will we never receive the great things God wants to give us? To catch the blessings God tosses our way every day, we simply have to open our hands, stretch out our arms.