A few thoughts on empty spaces

Speaker 1: In this episode of Balancing the Christian Life, I talk about the importance of empty time. Welcome to Balancing the Christian Life. I'm Dr Kenny Embry. Join me as we discover how to be better Christians and people in the digital age. I want to try something. This is different than a regular episode where I interview somebody who I think is smarter than I am. I usually try to script my episodes out pretty carefully, but in this one I just want to talk to you. I don't know where you are and I don't know what you're doing, but my life has gotten busy again. I love my job and I love helping students figure out their lives between the ages of 18 and 22. There's a special thing that happens around that age Students start figuring out that their identities are less entangled with their parents and they start figuring out their own identities. I know that I have to often struggle with my own identity as well. It's fun watching them grow. It's fun watching them change, but one of the things that I've learned as I've gotten older is there's often a time that I need negative spaces in my life. I'm not sure about you, but my life is filled with busyness and noise and distractions. We often need to create intentional negative space, these margins in our schedules where there are no obligations. This isn't empty time, or maybe I should say it this way it is empty time. It is intentionally empty time when you slow down and think about things and prioritize your time with God. I think it's easy for us to get caught up in all the things that need to get done, but not on a definite schedule. In this 46th Psalm we're told be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. I don't think that's God looking for a power trip, nor does he need all the attention. But I think what he is doing is he's saying I've got this, I'm the one who's in control, I'm the one who has everything on my shoulders, so please take it off yours. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places. We read about that a lot in the Gospels. I'm thinking right now about Luke, chapter five, and one of the things that Isaiah says is in repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength. Let's be clear the strength is in ours, the strength is God's. I'm not nearly as smart as I think I am. I'm not nearly as strong as I think I am and I have so little control over what's going on around me. The Bible tells us to spend time in silence and reflect on God Again, be still. One of the things that gives us that margin is being able to say no to things that are sometimes good but sometimes distracting. In Exodus, the 14th chapter says this the Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. Yes, I know I'm wrenching that out of context, but we're not very good at being still. I've heard it called the do something disease, and sometimes God tells us you can do nothing . So let me fight this. In Exodus 33, god makes this promise my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. It's being reminded of these things. That's helpful for me. God provides us both the space to reflect on His character and how he works in our lives. I don't know that we often slow down and think about the ways that God is acting in our lives, and don't take that in a strange way. I will be very frank with you. I don't know how he acts in our lives and I worry about people who say that they do know. Yes, I know he has given us His word, but if he directly acts in my life, I don't know. I'm happy for Him to do whatever he wants to, though, because whatever he ends up doing ends up being good for me. It is often in silence where our busy minds and our busy schedules allows us to hear God's voice clearer. I'm not talking about a literal voice, but I am saying that when you have the time to think, it gives you time to contemplate what God does For me . It's easy to get overwhelmed with thoughts about the worst-case scenario. In 2 Corinthians, paul has this to say. In chapter 10, verse 5, he says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Christ is the one that's in control. God is the one that's in control. So how do you do any of this? Being silent helps us align our thoughts with God's plans. Regular times in silence help us to focus on God. So find some time, think about what God wants us to do. Take a walk, slow down and let me pray. Dear God, we need help, and often more help than we know we need. We have the illusion that we're in control of a lot of stuff. There are some things that are absolutely under our control. Help us to do the things that we can do, but show us our limits. Show us what we cannot do. Show us a picture of where you want us to be. We have a one track mind. We often have a definite plan of where we want to be. Help us to come in more alignment with what you want. There are a lot of things we're worried about. We know you told us not to, but we do it anyway. Help us to worry less, or at least to give you the stuff that we cannot take ourselves. We love you, lord, but sometimes we're not very good at showing that, so help us to learn what love means. We also realize, lord, that love means we do stuff for other people, so help us to be intentional about that. Help us to be good to other people. Help us to help them. Help us to focus less on ourselves. Help us to be less selfish and help us to be more like you. Help us to have a life that is used for service. Forgive us when we do the wrong thing and help us recognize what that wrong thing was. We realize, lord, your law is not something you made up just to watch us go through hoops. By following your law, you make us better. You make us more like you. Be with our friends, be with our family. Help us to learn to love other people more. Help us to be servants. In Christ's name, we pray, amen . I hope that helps you. I know this is a lot different than what I usually do, but I hope this is something that helps you, centered for just for today. I've been toying with doing a lot of these because I think they're short and for me they're useful. So until next time, let's be good and do good.