FILLING THE EXISTENTIAL VACUUM

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.  What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?  (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3).

One of the most worn books in my personal library is Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.  In it Frankl uses the term existential vacuum (EV) to describe the feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness that characterize the people of our time; Fankl called EV a mass neurosis.  The general symptoms of EV are depression, aggression and addiction, or more specifically, boredom, inertia, work addiction, drug, alcohol and sex dependency and abusive behaviors.

In the pysical world, vacuums do not continue to be vacuums for long.  Vaccums suck--they suck things into them to fill the vacuum.  Thus, a vacuum cleaner sucks dirt and debris into it until it is full.  So it is when a person does not have a meaning for his life, he sucks in all kinds of things to fill the vacuum in an attempt to find meaning.  The pursuit of status, the pursuit of power, the pursuit of pleasure and the collection of "toys" are all vain attempts to fill the existential vacuum in each of us.

If you have ever eaten your fill of junk food, though it tastes good it still leaves you feeling strangely empty because you have eaten food that does not satisfy--lots of sugar and fat but no nutrition.  That is how the existential vacuum is, filling the life with all kinds of things that do not satisfy until the point is reached that it is full and yet it is strangely empty.

Augustine expressed a true-to-the-Bible truth when he said, 'God has made us for himself; our souls cannot rest until they rest in him.'  What Frankl said in secular terms, Augustine said in theological terms hundreds of years earlier.  It is in God, through Jesus Christ, that meaning is found!  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).  God has created us in his image and redeemed us so that we can be more than just products of our heredity and environment.  We can stand up against circumstances that seem overwhelming and be victors because of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

The question to be answered is, will the remaining years of your life have meaning or will it be filled with the strange emptiness of having everything, but having nothing?

Grace&Peace,
Tom