Nothing.

It’s a curious word. 

I mean, as words go I suppose it’s pretty average. 

But it’s the opposite of what it means. 

By the word’s very existence - nothing - there is something. 

It takes pixels to put the word on this page. 

It requires you to form a thought. 

Go ahead. Think about “nothing” for just a moment. 

You can’t. 

Our existence hasn’t prepared us for the contemplation of “nothing.” We can’t comprehend it.  

The absence of everything. 

Chances are that right now while you’re reading this you are inside of some kind of structure. 

Imagine the room you are in right now, but without furniture or curtains or carpeting. 

That’s not “nothing.” 

You still have a ceiling and walls and a floor. 

Remove those, and you are standing on dirt and grass with air all around you. Still not “nothing.” 

Take those away, and you have rocks. Remove the rocks, and you find yourself confronted by that semi-solid semi-liquid layer scientists tell us lies immediately below the crust of the earth, the mantle. 

But it’s still not “nothing.” 

Remove the mantle, and you’ve reached the core of the planet. 

Take away the core, and you are in space, almost a perfect vacuum, but even the vacuum contains something. 

You can see the light of the sun, the reflected light from the moon. Take away those, and the light of billions of suns reaches you. 

That vacuum you’re in, while pretty thin, is still not “nothing.” 

OK. Come back to earth. 

Now imagine what it was like just before “the beginning.” 

There was nothing. 

Only God. 

The reason there was nothing, is that God doesn’t need anything. There was nothing other than Him. 

He is totally complete, in and of Himself. 

He lacks, well, nothing! 

So when God decided to create the universe, there was nothing. 

No space. 

No light or darkness, because there was nowhere for them to exist. There wasn’t any “where” yet! 

No time. 

Nothing. 

Emptiness. Void. 

Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. 

The total absence of anything and everything, except for God Himself. 

Why do you think it’s impossible for us to think about “nothing?” It’s possible for us to not think about anything for a short period of time, but it’s impossible for us to truly think of “nothing.” 

It’s in our nature to fill up the emptiness, to pour things or ourselves into the void. The expectation that, since the void is unnatural, the universe will seek to fill it up with something. 

When you make a hole in the water, the rest of the water rushes in to fill that void. 

The same is true in our spiritual lives. We are uncomfortable with the idea of emptiness and nothing. We seek to fill it up with whatever happens to be handy, whether it’s music on the radio or an inane television rerun, materialism, habits (sinful or not), food, sleep, sex, sports, our spouse, our kids’ activities... 

Even in the realm of the church, we are uncomfortable with the idea of emptiness in our lives. 

But sometimes nothing and emptiness are important ingredients in our lives and endeavors. Sometimes the “thing” that is missing in our lives is actually nothing. 

Great artists understand the need for emptiness.

The accomplished composer will place a rest in just the right place. No music. Nothing. 

The painter knows that the eye needs a place to rest, a place where there is nothing. 

They understand that adding one more color would spoil the entire effect of the masterpiece. 

The chef knows that adding one more ingredient would be too much. Adding nothing makes it better. 

The screenwriter knows that in order for the character to deliver a particular line, a dramatic pause is needed. A moment where nothing is happening. 

So why is it that in our daily lives when we encounter “nothing” we seek to fill it? Usually we try to cram in whatever is handy, often using things that are not particularly helpful and sometimes using things that can be harmful to us physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

As we think about nothing in the coming days, we will see that it is often the “nothing” that leaves room for God to work. 

And the opposite is true. 

It’s often in the absence of nothing when there is no margin left in our lives for His work to be completed.

Excerpted from 30 Days of Nothing. Purchase the book here: Amazon