Day Eleven
”…LET ME BE EMPTY.”
Today’s Scripture Reading
So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne.
Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won’t be discouraged and you won’t give up. In your struggle against sin, you haven’t resisted yet to the point of shedding blood, and you have forgotten the encouragement that addresses you as sons and daughters:
My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline
or give up when you are corrected by him,
because the Lord disciplines whomever he loves,
and he punishes every son or daughter whom he accepts.
Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn’t disciplined by his or her father? But if you don’t experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters. What’s more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness. No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:1-11
Reflection
If to be “full” is to be satisfied, then to be “empty” is to be unfulfilled and void of any kind of satisfaction. To pray the second half of this line, “let me be empty,” is to offer ourselves up knowing that there may be times when we serve God’s mission that we are left wanting—feeling like our work is done in vain, without any real impact or joy. We’ve all heard statements similar to, “We all have parts of our jobs we don’t like,” or “I like 80 percent of my job and hate 20 percent of my job.” In God’s economy, however, there is likely a time or two when we will feel the 80/20 principle in reverse, or maybe even feel 100 percent dissatisfied.
To serve others, knowing that “empty” might be there to greet us at the end of our work, is to serve faithfully, without needing to see or feel the fruits of our labor. Empty can mean a lot of things, including lack of purpose or meaning. Contrary to being “full,” serving empty can feel as though serving is pointless. To pray, “let me be empty,” however, is to know that serving could be an experience in which we serve out of obedience and responsibility and never see positive results, meet joy, feel fulfilled, or make a difference of any kind.
A saying often attributed to Mother Teresa goes, “Don’t think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.” The truth is, sometimes loving others in the name of Jesus doesn’t even feel ordinary. We must choose to love, even when we don’t feel like it. We must choose to love, even when it doesn’t produce feelings of satisfaction. Also attributed to Mother Teresa are the words, “For love to be real, it must cost, it must hurt, it must empty us of self.” I believe that Wesley would have thought similarly. To love, that is to have a total love of God and others, we must be emptied of self. Like Jesus emptied himself to take on humanity (Philippians 2), so are we charged to take up our cross and in doing so, die to self and empty ourselves in entirety, which, of course, includes feelings of satisfaction.
I am sure you’ve been empty before. Empty is that feeling when you feel as though whatever you’ve done to serve or love another has had no impact, carries no weight, gets no credit, and takes every ounce of your energy to complete. In the end, you choose to love anyway because you know that this is how the world will recognize its disciples, by how we love one another—and by how we choose to live an illumined life in a dark world. You won’t always feel joy, but you will always know the weight of the responsibility to love.
You won’t always feel joy, but you will always know
the weight of the responsibility to love.
C. S. Lewis said, “The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.”* Although we may feel empty, if we act as though we feel joy, those we serve will know that God has not forgotten them. Love enacted is a gift from God, whether we feel like giving it away or not.
Have you ever received a gift that you didn’t really like? What did you say? You said, “Thanks so much; I love it,” even when you didn’t. Have you ever been proudly served a meal by someone who has spent a great deal of time working on it and after taking one bite, you realized you were going to have to choke it down? What did you say? You said, “This is delicious; thank you.” You may have even gone overboard and said, “May I have the recipe for this?” I would assume you’ve also told a person their painting or drawing or clay pot was beautiful, when really you were thinking, That’s awful. Here is the reality when we pretend to like something we don’t, only we know we are pretending. Unless, of course, we are bad actors. Regardless of the possibility of feeling empty, we pretend we are full anyway and, in doing so, we show love. Playacting love is a not a departure from reality, but rather a journey into the center of it.
Today’s Challenge:
ORDINARY LOVE
Make a list of five ordinary ways to love. After you act on the ordinary ways, rate your level of love during each action on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being full of love and 1 being left empty. Take note of what feelings you have and why.
Personal Reflection
•How often do I feel empty?
•Am I willing to remain empty for God’s work? For how long am I willing to feel empty?
Group Discussion
•When have you served and felt empty?
•What do you think emptying ourselves has to do with serving?
•Describe a time when you loved, even when you didn’t feel like it. How did you feel after you loved?
•What would you say is the main idea of this part of the prayer?
Departing Prayer
May we, when feeling empty from loving others, call upon you, God, for strength to endure. May we love well, whether we feel like it or not. Amen.
*. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Macmillan: New York, 1952), 116.