“I don’t want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can’t even see it, something that’s drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.” ~ Margaret Atwood
Today is National Doughnut Day
Have you ever heard or used the phrase “I feel like the hole in a doughnut?” Not an uncommon feeling to experience at different stages in life. The world of science has many labels to describe this feeling of being empty, such as depression, loneliness, isolation, unworthiness, not fitting in, complete failure, or a waste of life. Regardless of how you label it, this feeling is one of emptiness. The expressions “something is missing,” “I feel lost,” or “I feel empty inside” are common phrases to describe this feeling.
Science offers excellent advice and treatment for this disorder, but science can only mask the feeling and provide a temporary solution. This so-called hole is the dwelling place for the Spirit of God, which means science can’t fill this hole. It’s impossible to fill the hole in our soul with anything other than God, who is the rightful occupant.
Inviting God into our life is the only way to fill this hole permanently. God created us for a relationship. The hole we point to is God’s residence in our soul, and only by invitation is God welcome to call our soul home. If we want the emptiness to go away, we need to invite God to dwell deep down inside us. God always accepts our invitation, so if you feel empty today, send God an invitation to come and dwell in your soul. How does someone invite God to live deep down inside them? By sending an invitation through prayer and asking God to please forgive them of their character defects, to become the Director of their life, and take up permanent residence in their soul. This invitation must follow an earnest commitment to live along spiritual lines to have a transforming effect on our lives.
Do you feel empty today? Are you experiencing bouts of emptiness? Today is the day to change that!
In the life of a doughnut, that hole that represents nothing means everything. The doughnut has many names; it’s a Cruller, Bismarck, Beignet, Churro, Greasy Sinker, or any of those words that refer to a fried piece of dough. Frying up dough goes back to the Romans. See, the Romans weren’t all bad. All of Europe fell in love with fried dough, but it was an American who created the hole in the doughnut; God Bless the USA. It was started in the 19th century by a teenager named Hanson Crockett Gregory from Clam Cove, Maine, who took his mother’s fried dough and punched a hole in it and then asked his mom to fry it up that way because the centers rarely cooked all the way through.
Fred Crockett, who lives in Rockport, Maine, not far from the bronze plaque honoring his ancestor, is in his 90s and still starts with coffee and a plain cake doughnut each day. He also takes sharp exception to any theory about the origin of doughnut holes, but his relatives told him about Gregory and his mother. “When she told him the centers don’t cook up, Crockett just walked across the floor of the kitchen and stuck a fork through the dough. The rest are just crazy stories,” he says.¹
Friends, that is the “hole truth” and nothing but the truth.
God of fullness and love, only You can fill this hole inside my soul. God, forgive me for attempting to fill this hole with worldly things. Things like alcohol, drugs, sex, food, money, power, glory, and prestige. Please forgive me of my character defects, direct my life, and dwell inside my soul for all the days of my life. Take away my emptiness and fill me with Your Spirit. In your Spirit and Name, I pray these things. May Your will not mine always materialize, now and forever. Amen.
Leave a Reply