A number of years ago, I heard the term “filling the God hole”, referring to that which we all as human beings seek to fulfill in our lives. How often have you felt an empty spot in your heart and soul? Loneliness, fear, anger, frustration…did I mention “fear”? That emotion runs high, and despite the denial of it, is often the foundation of many other emotions.
An emptiness that we feel and try to “fix” by nonstop activities, family, friends, lovers, spouses, shopping, food, sleep, drugs, alcohol, a myriad of other ways to try and fill it. Other attempts to fill that “hole” can include self-centeredness, negativity, pessimism, hopelessness, apathy, restlessness, emptiness, longing, rawness, sadness, frustration, depression, neediness.
A Psychology Today article says that, “We are all searching for something. What that something might be is never really a certainty, but it typically displays itself as a nagging sense of something unfinished or a thing undone that plagues our days and troubles our sleep. It is a restlessness within the human heart described by St. Augustine as “…humanity’s innate desire for the infinite…”,” He’s right to a point; his answer is that “we,” can fulfill that longing. The truth is: we can’t. (1)
Blaise Pascal was the first to identify the “God hole”. He was a 17th Century mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and theologian who, while still a teenager, even invented rudimentary calculators.
“Pascal postulated in his Pensees that for each of us, there is a proverbial hole within our hearts. It leaves us craving and seeking happiness. Regardless of our possessions, wealth, or satiation with food and drink, we still seek more.
“Pascal said this desire to seek more is evidence that, at one point, there was a man who was completely satisfied and happy. As Christians, we recognize that this is Adam, the first of our kind, who walked with God in the Garden of Eden and knew nothing of want.
“Therein lies the key — the satisfaction we seek is in God rather than any temporal fulfillment. As Pascal said, “this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”” (2)
“We come into the world craving love, spend our lives chasing after love, and die wanting more love.” (3)
Nothing can fulfill that longing except for one thing: God’s unconditional love.
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (4) (). God fashioned us in His image to love and to be loved. He loved us so much that He sacrificed His only-begotten Son so that we could have a personal relationship with Him, for eternity. (John 3:16)
Consider King Solomon, who had all the riches, success, esteem, and power in the world—in short, all that men seek after in this life—we see that none of it fulfilled the longing for eternity. He declared it all “vanity,” meaning that he sought after these things in vain because they did not satisfy. In the end he said, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Each of us has a hole in our mind, our heart, and our body that only God can fill, As Christians, God calls us to help each other find that God hole and fill it with the best unconditional love we can muster. It begins with our presence with each other and listening. (5) If you don’t yet have a personal relationship with Christ, I invite you to consider getting one. Here’s a simple explanation about how to do that. See The Four Spiritual Laws.
Will all our longings and fears suddenly be removed? Absolutely not! We are human, after all, and will revert to our old ways, probably more frequently than we wish we would. But there is a change that takes place within the heart and spirit and mind when we accept the Lord and our heavenly Father as first and foremost in our lives. We start thinking more about others than ourselves, and “getting out of ourselves” is a solution to these longings in and of itself. Into service to others, starting with being available, forming relationships based on unconditional, rather than “conditional” love, goes a very long way to fill that “God hole.”
Do you have a “God hole?” Turn your mind and heart to God and His Son Jesus Christ, the answer to the longing in our hearts. What have you got to lose? (And everything to gain!)
By Sue Forde
1 Michael Formica opines in a Psychology Today article.
2 https://www.geeksundergrace.com/christian-living/pascals-god-shaped-hole-and-the-geek/
3 Lori Freeland, a freelance author
(4) Genesis 1:27 NIV
(5) Joanna Seibert.