“No person, not even the best one, can give your soul all it needs. This cosmic disappointment and disillusionment is there all of life, but we especially feel it in the things upon which we most set our hopes.” ~ Timothy Keller
If you turn on the news, watch the daily talk shows, read the newspaper or check out the NY Times best sellers list there is no lack of opinion on what is wrong with society and how it can be corrected. But while there seems to be a consensus that all is not right with the world, and things are not the way they should be or could be, there does not seem to be much agreement on how to correct this dilemma. There is a universal agreement that things are a mess, but everyone wants to point fingers about who is to blame or how the situation must be rectified.
Some will tell you that the solution to societies' problems is through education; better schools or through charter schools. Others will tell you that you need to simplify your life and give up the trappings of our technological and materialistic society. Still others say it is by embracing hedonism, relativism or an anti-establishment lifestyle. Then another more enlightened group will tell us that we need to break free from our attachment to the past and our outdated reliance on social mores and the bondage to religious beliefs. Strip away anything and everything they tell you that holds you back because man is able through the power of positive thinking and visualization to evolve into some god-like perfection. Just buy our book or DVD series and we will show you how.
Growing up in the country and without cable television I spent most of my time outdoors engaged in various activities. But growing up in the northeast there are some days that it is just too cold to stay outside from sunrise to sunset. Those days with inclement weather were spent indoors either reading or listening to Top 40 or rock music. It seems that most teenagers day dream about either being a professional athlete, rock star or both, and I was no exception. The attraction seems to be the idea of being loved and adored by millions as well as the money and lifestyle portrayed by the media. Yet the road is littered with the casualties of stardom,that doesn’t seem to deter the masses from pining for this life to fill the void.
If you look at the lyrics and titles of many pop or rock songs they are filled with allusions to trying to fill the void. Just from the 80’s alone you can probably come up with more examples than the Eagles “The Thrill is Gone” or U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found what I’m Looking for.” Kansas penned the song “Dust in the Wind” that points to the brevity of life and the hands down winner has to be “I can’t get no Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. All of these songs point to a concept that is known as having a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts. This is the concept that states that every person has a void in their spirit, soul and life that can only be filled by God and God alone. GotQuestions.org states; “The God-shaped hole is the innate longing of the human heart for something outside itself, something transcendent, something ‘other’.”
Admittedly I have not followed pop or rock music since the early 90’s, and as I have grown spiritually I wanted to fill my mind with music and lyrics that seek to honor and praise God. But the other day while out bowling with my family a song came on over the PA system that caught my attention. The song is titled “Hole Hearted” and it was released in 1990 by a group called Extreme. The lead singer’s name is Gary Cherone, and he co-wrote the song with Nuno Bettencourt. In 1991 it rose all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts. What I did not know is that at the time he wrote this song and the others on the album he had started listening to pastor and radio speaker Chuck Swindoll and was reading his book “The Grace Awakening.” The album follows the life of “Jack” who looks to fill the void or hole in his life through money, sex and a total hedonistic life experience. The final cut on the album is Hole Hearted.
“Life's ambition occupies my time
Priorities confuse the mind
Happiness one step behind
This inner peace I've yet to find
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me (quoting Ecclesiastes 1:7)
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
Hole hearted
Hole hearted
This heart of stone is where I hide
These feet of clay kept warm inside
Day by day less satisfied
Not fade away before I die
Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can't be filled with the things I do
There's a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
Should have known from the start
I'd fall short with the things I do”
Truth, real truth can be found sometimes in the most unlikely places and long before Cherone and Bettencourt penned these lyrics the wisest man wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon knew well before our modern music artists that this world is filled with empty and vain pursuits and he states in chapter 3 verse 11 that God has placed eternity in our hearts and every man, woman and child consciously or unconsciously is hole hearted until they allow God to fill that void and emptiness that we all feel.
GotQuestions.org sums it up this way; “Just as a square peg cannot fill a round hole, neither can the God-shaped hole inside each of us be filled by anyone or anything other than God. Only through a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ can the God-shaped hole be filled and the desire for eternity fulfilled.” We can try to fill that void with fleeting things like money, success, esteem, power, hedonism or with man’s wisdom. All those will disappoint and disappear. Find your true identity in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.
Note: If you are interested in an excellent book on our futile attempts to fill that hole, pick up a copy of Timothy Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods.”
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