Hallowed be thy name; hollowed be thy servant

I wrote on fullness a few days back, so it is only fitting that I write on emptiness.  I do not know why I wrote on a different topic in between.  I guess I was passionate about passion with a passionately passionate passion.

Oh yeah.  I'm in that kind of mood.

I have been wanting to write about being empty for a long time, so I am relieved that I can finally organize these thoughts in my head.  Or at least try to.  God has really been teaching me about being empty.  I guess you could say that I am so full of emptiness, I have to let it out now.

Irony, for the win.

I know it has taken me longer than usual to get serious, but here it goes.  As followers of Christ, we are to be empty.  Now, do not use the word "empty" loosely, for if we are empty of Christ...yeah, that is not good!  When I speak of being empty in this post, I mean only of being empty of the world and all that comes with it.  I mean being empty of our prideful selves.  I mean being empty of everything that is not the Everything.

Humility is not easy, nor is it ever a finished process.  You will never get a polished trophy for humility.  I once read a quote that I am struggling to find via Google that said something along the lines of, "The moment a man says he is humble, he is not."  Pride could be its own post (actually, it has been), and is an issue that I contemplate over frequently, because I admittedly struggle with it frequently.  Pride is engraved into me.  My head is big.

Thank goodness, God is bigger.

I fill myself up with the world and the things I cherish and the jokes I make and the people I help and the prayers I say and the friends I make and the smiles I form and the hugs I give and the difference I think I make and the words I write and the wisdom I believe I possess and the diving catch I make and the little kid I keep from crying and the grades I make and the people who wave as they pass by me and the leadership positions I hold and the conversations I have and everything else that is mine that is not mine in the first place.

Yes, that is a vulnerable (and extremely long) sentence.  But if we are not willing to admit our pride, how will we recognize it?  How can we ask God to remove what we don't think we have?  How can we pray to God to empty us of the very things keeping us from filling ourselves with Him if we avoid them or look straight through them or leave them to collect dust.

Dust adds up.  It takes up space.  Little by little...

I like to visualize.  It helps me.  Well, really, God does a pretty beautiful job of painting pictures in my head.  I pray this prayer, and at the risk of sounding like a therapist or a meditation instructor, I ask of you to try it:

(Oh and a note, this prayer is a lot more meaningful if done from the knees or bowing position.  The symbolic act of becoming as lowly as possible makes it more intimate.  At least it does to me.)

I picture myself, in bodily form.  I ask God to hollow me (emphasis on the word hollow).  I picture my body, my arms and legs, my entire being, hollowed.  Everything that is enclosed in my skin--gone.  "Hollow me, hollow me so that I may have more room for You."  That is what I ask.

I can almost feel the flush of my inner organs.  I can almost hear the sound of the emptiness inside of me, the soundwaves bouncing from side to side, like the echos of a cave, like the ting of a metal pipe when you flick it with your finger.  That's how empty I want to be.  I want to be hollow.  I want Him to dig out every pound of dirt that fills my body.  By the shovelful.  I picture my skin, my entire body filled with dirt and just maybe God is driving the bulldozer with a yellow construction hat on His head or maybe that is rather childish.  I am His child, though...

I want to feel my own blood burst out of my veins and I want the blood He shed on the cross to fill them instead.  Oh, how He will fill me!  My bones, my blood, my being!  I want Him to be packed into me, tighter than brown sugar in a plastic measuring cup, tighter than the one suitcase you can take to New York in the winter, with big heavy coats that take up a lot of room, the kind you (and three other family members) have to sit on to zip up.  I want the fullness of God to stretch my skin, to leave no room, no air bubbles.  First, I must become hollow.

I want to be hollow so that I may be full.

This prayer does not "make" you humble.  It does make you constantly more aware of your pride, more prayerful about demolishing it, and more passionate over He who is most humble, He who is most exalted.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:8-11

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  -Matthew 23:12

Hollow me of this earth and fill me up with You.

LMB