Sunday, January 10, 2016

Navigating the Void

My heart is a little heavy as I type this out. I've been reading a book called "The Five People You Meet in Heaven". The main character just met his wife as the fourth person and now she's gone. Terrible explanation, I know. But anyways it's a starting point to show you what got me thinking. I've never really considered heaven to be anything other than shared with my friends and loved ones. This book made me consider not being able to spend eternity with them. 

I'm not afraid of my friends or family dying. Death doesn't scare me. It's the void that follows. I understand that in a void something else can come, something greater. But this is something I don't wish to upgrade. I want to keep the friends, the relationships I have as long as I can and never replace them when they're gone. 

The truth is, individuals can never be replaced. Everyone was made unique. Replacing someone is impossible. But if you lose someone or for whatever reason your time with them comes to an end, a void is left. Now you can either protect that void and feel the emptiness it creates or you can let that space be filled with someone or something new. Just because a space in your life is filled does not invalidate or cheapen what filled it before. Does the time I spend daily with my closest friend(s) cheapen the time I used to spend similarly with the friend(s) in high school? No. It's just different. It's the same space filled in different ways. The ways the space is filled are incomparable. 

You have to allow yourself to love. Do not fear the void. The void is there only as long as you want it to be. You have to invest in people. People are the only thing that transcends time into eternity. Lives are eternal currency. You want to be rich? Invest. Anyone you meet. Encourage. Lift up. Speak life. Declare destiny. Just go about your day being who you are and love people. When you do you won't even realize the depth of change you are creating in people's lives. 

You have to push. Push to excel and to help others around you to excel. That is how you avoid the depravity of the void. And don't take things to the other extreme when you lose someone or something and just hop from friend to friend or thing to thing. Grieve and admit the loss. But get back up and continue to love. Love through the grieving. It sucks, but it's the best way to deal with the pain. Let love invade that place and overwhelm the pain. 

Well, there's my heart and my thoughts for the evening. As always hopefully it's encouraging and inspires you to be exactly who you were created to be.