Even in Lack
We all know to be thankful for what we possess. The blessings, the answered prayers, the things that fill our lives and homes and spaces, even if they don’t always measure up to our expectations or our culture’s ideals. We know to care for them. We do our best to be generous with them. We remember to be grateful for them (especially this time of year), and rightly so. But what do we do with the longings, the empty spaces in our homes and hearts, the things we deeply desire or even need but don’t have? What do we do with our lack? Our places of deep lack are often the places of our deepest pain, confusion, fear, and shame. But what if we were to allow ourselves to see and hold the thing we lack in this season and...thank Him for it? Is that even really possible? If we trust the heart of God, maybe we can allow ourselves to believe that our places of deepest lack can become the places of our greatest freedom.
Lack can come in many forms and spaces. A lack of money and resources. A lack of community. Of friendship or feeling known and seen. A lack of purpose. A lack of clarity. A lack of an answer or direction. Lack presents a powerful opportunity for our hearts because what we do with our lack can lead us into greater bondage or into greater freedom.
Often we place our happiness, our fulfillment and purpose, our peace and stability on something we don’t have. We allow our hearts to grow ever more fixed on the thing we don’t have as the object of our affection and desire and fulfillment. “When I get this, then...” When we place our hope in a future something, our hearts can end up in bondage to an idea, a desire, a need. Even something beautiful and good can become a stronghold in our hearts if we place our hopes in it instead of in Jesus. Something we don’t own can own us if we let the desire for it take root in us.
Instead, we can hold the thing we lack and entrust it to God. We can let it teach us and shape us in ways that only walking through lack can.
Lack can teach us that His goodness is not dependent on us having. It can teach us the painful, beautiful hope of that which we do not yet have. It can teach us that even without it, we are ok. Lack can teach us to wait. It can teach us patience, endurance. Lack teaches us to trust.
What if we viewed every lack that we have as an opportunity to be more free? Rather than hiding our lack in shame or trying desperately to get it through our own means, we can be honest about it with the One who loves us and knows us. We’re flawed, needy people who get to trust in the love of a God who meets us in our need. Isn’t that what all of the gospel is?
We find that the eternal, deepest needs of our heart are met in Him.
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.” (Psa. 23:1 NIV)
Instead of letting our lack lead us into a deeper fixation on getting what we want or need, what if we let it lead us into a deeper freedom from what we thought we couldn’t live without?
Instead of believing “When I get this, then...”, our hearts can learn through lack that “Even without this, then....”
