Running On Empty

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Running on Empty
by Mae Shurow

Some people live for the weekend. Some people live for sports, or hunting and fishing, and some of us live for thrills and excitement. Some people live for what they can get - new clothes, new cars, new houses, bigger bank accounts - and some live for all the pleasure that can be had. Some people live for drugs and some live for sex. Some of us live for work and some live for play. Some people live to gossip and some live to cause trouble. Some people even live to worry, and are not happy unless there is something to worry about.

So, what keeps you going? What drives you - motivates you to get out of the bed in the morning? What do you look forward to? What gives you comfort or satisfaction – gives you that feel-good-feeling inside? As Christians, we like to think we live for Christ our Lord, but do we really? Have you thought about what you are REALLY LIVING FOR?

In Athens, the people “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear of some new thing” (Acts 17:21). It stimulated them. Paul came to tell them that God gives to all life, and breath, and all things (vs. 25) and that indeed God made all men to dwell on the earth for the purpose of seeking after Him – “…that they might feel after Him, and find Him…” And further, “…that He be not far from every one of us: For in Him we live, and move, and have our being…” (Acts17:27-28).

God breathed His very life into our nostrils in the Garden of Eden. But we become alienated from the life that God breathed freely into us (Eph. 4:18) because we chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life. Although our bodies remained alive, alienation from God brought death into our spirits. We became empty shells that feel dead inside because the life of God no longer animates our spirits. This emptiness inside creates a longing for something that will fill us and so we find that we are always searching for something that will make us feel alive again inside. We are all on an unconscious quest for a sense of well-being that can only come from God.

Living on adrenaline

When mankind chose to eat of the evil tree, we chose to depend on the wisdom of Satan for our source of life. Satan began to manipulate our bodies by artificial means – to stimulate them in order to give us motivation. Now, our bodies are God-given and have their good and proper use. But Satan took the God-intended natural use of many bodily hormones and used them instead to artificially animate our bodies apart from the Life-giving Spirit of God. And without God to animate our spirits, we quickly learned to accept Satan’s substitute and to depend on our own adrenaline to sustain our bodies and to keep them going.

The main tool that Satan uses to animate us is FEAR. We see this right away in Adam and Eve – when God came looking for them in the Garden, they were AFRAID (Gen. 3:10). He also employs shame (they hid themselves) and blame (Adam blamed Eve). He toys with our emotions and uses them to control our behavior and jerk us around like puppets on a string!

Addiction

What motivates you – what is your adrenaline, stress hormone, or dopamine producer of choice? Fear? Worry? Pleasure? Excitement? Resentment? Guilt? Whatever motivates you, that earthly thing has control of you. You are, in Biblical terms, a slave to it. Adrenaline/dopamine is addictive. Just like other drugs, we build up a tolerance to adrenaline and dopamine and it takes more and more to excite us…we have to have more and more! (Scripture calls this covetousness.) Buy something new…more sex, kinkier sex, more stimulating, more exciting, NEW…eventually we become numb emotionally (or, past feeling as Scripture describes it in Eph. 4:19) and end up engaging in the reprehensible behaviors verse 19 describes just to feel something. I think this may even be the reason some people have become what we term “cutters.” Fear and pain have caused them to become so very numb that they are desperate to feel something – just to have a sense of being alive.

When we attempt to use the things of the earth as our source of life, “the end thereof is death” (Prov. 14:12). What goes up, must come down. Bodies which are over-stimulated and forced by whatever means (drugs, excitement, stress, worry) into hormonal overproduction can leave a person exhausted and depressed. The result can be a vicious cycle in which, feeling down, a person looks for the next fix in whatever form personally preferred. Although scientific knowledge is far from complete, the medical and psychological communities are beginning to produce some interesting research in this area. Adrenal glands, over-stimulated to the point of adrenal exhaustion, may result in what is known as chronic fatigue syndrome, which can begin “during or shortly after a time of great stress” (Mayo Clinic, 2007). “Bipolar disorder may also be caused by severe emotional stress at some time in life” (WebMD, 2007). It is also possible that excessive stress and adrenaline production may be major contributors to stress-related and auto-immune diseases in which the body essentially works to destroy itself (Mental Health About.com, 2005). Coritsol, a hormone our bodies are flooded with when under undue stress, has been shown to be toxic to brain cells (Goleman, D. (1995). It has even been found that cancer – the most dreaded disease of all – may actually feed on stress…(Medical News Today, 2006).

Of course, researchers are quick to point out that hormonal over-stimulation alone does not cause disease, but a person becomes diseased according to genetic tendencies when over-exposed to these hormones. Strangely, though, we are all genetically pre-disposed to any number of a variety of stress-related diseases including high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, headaches, arthritis, lupus, etc. It appears that the artificial methods of stimulation unconsciously used by mankind are indeed disease and death-producing.

The earth and all its fullness belong to God, and He made it for our use. But when we use the things He gave us for our “motivation” and “stimulation” we have slipped into idolatry, for we depend on them for our very sustenance (life-source) rather than on God. Because of the “blindness of our hearts” (Eph. 4:18), because we have hearts that do not perceive that it would be best for us to love God, we love and chase after all kinds of empty things (things on the earth) that only give us a temporary feeling of happiness…or satisfaction…or safety…but will never fill us. Our hearts go after other gods – other things that will make us feel alive. The Scriptures say we are “like a wild ass that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure…for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go” (Jer. 2:24-25). We become covetousness, greedy, always wanting more, never satisfied – even when we catch what we lusted after – because it is merely satanic illusion that these things could ever bring the inner satisfaction we crave.

Fasting

Col. 3:5 tells us to put to death our lusts for these earthly things. How do we do this? By a Biblical principle called fasting. The Lord said, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isa 58:6). To break the hold these earthly things have over us, the first thing we must do is FAST from them. We must stop spending our money for that which is not bread, and our labor for that which satisfies not (Isaiah 55:2).

True sustenance

But fasting alone will only make us feel emptier. What will really fill us, give us the sense of happiness and satisfaction that we crave? “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). I used to think this verse meant that those who wanted righteousness would receive righteousness. But that’s not what Jesus said – He said those who yearn after righteousness will be filled. The same concept is repeated in Matthew 6:33, where Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” When we seek, above all the other things that we could run after, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, He fills us! He fills our hearts with love and compassion. He fills our time with helping others. It is only when we hunger to do what is right that we will ever be fulfilled (filled to the full!), for only God satisfies the desire of every living thing (Psa 145:16).

Col. 3: 2-4 tells us to “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, For your life is hid with Christ in God…who is our Life.” Christ, the Living Word of God, is our very LIFE! He is a life-giving Spirit! To eat His flesh and drink His blood spiritually (John 6:53-58) is to once again partake of the Tree of Life. “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:33). The Lord is the True Bread from heaven. All else is false, an illusion. So how do we partake of that true sustenance? Scripture says that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4, Deut. 8:3).

First, then, we must LISTEN – quiet our minds so that we can hear from God. “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live…” (Isa 55:3). We must go to Him and learn of Him (Matt. 11:29). Forsake our own thoughts and our own plans in order to sit at His feet and listen to His thoughts (Isaiah 55:7-8).

Secondly, we must LOOK, not at that which is earthly, but at things that are eternal (2 Corin. 4:18). “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Psa 145:15-16).

We must fix our gaze upon God, for “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Mat 6:22). Single means without duplicity – of a single focus. “When the eye accomplishes its purpose of seeing things as they are, then it is single, healthy, perfect” (Zodhiates, S. 2000). We must determine to set the Lord always before us, for whatever we look at and focus on we will come to desire (the lust of the eyes). As we behold Him, we will be transformed into His likeness by the Spirit of the Lord (1 Corin. 3:18).

“But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mat 6:23). Evil means sick, diseased, defective, unserviceable or useless, that which causes trouble and brings sorrow” (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1976). If we continually look at and focus on those things which are useless, or that which causes trouble and brings sorrow, oh, how great will be our darkness!

Lastly, we must LINGER on what we have seen and heard. Meditate on His word, and think on things that are good and true and lovely (Phil. 4:8). “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corin. 10:5). In his book Reaching Out, Henri Nouwen well said," ...first of all we [must] make God our only thought. That means that we must dispel all distractions, concerns, worries, and preoccupations, and fill the mind with God alone" (1975, p. 147).When we stay our minds on Him, He will give us that perfect peace we all long for (Isaiah 26:3). The things we listen to…look at…linger upon in our minds… - in essence, whatever we feed on spiritually – becomes a part of us. We become what we behold in our mind’s eye, and as we behold Him, we will be transformed into His likeness by the Spirit of the Lord (1 Corin. 3:18).

As we partake of the LIFE of Jesus by LISTENING, LOOKING, AND LINGERING, this LIFE becomes the LIGHT of men (John 1:4). I believe that in Scripture, “light” means understanding and “darkness” means ignorance. Without His Life, we walk in darkness, in ignorance (Eph. 4:18) of ourselves and of our own motivations. Today we term this ignorance of our own motivations as “the realm of the unconscious,” but in Scripture it is called the “hidden things of darkness” (1 Corin. 4:5). As we feed on His LIFE, His Light shines into our darkness and we become more self-aware. We begin to see the empty things we have chased after for what they truly are and to understand that only God will truly satisfy.

Pro 4:18-19 says, “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.” How wonderful, that the Lord gives light and shows us what we stumble at! How I thank Him that He continues to reveal my own vile affections to me! And how thankful I am that as I walk in that Light that He has given, He shines more and more light so that I see what I’m still stumbling over and the strange gods my heart has gone after! And how I thank God that when I walk in obedience to what He has shown me, my understanding grows and my path grows brighter and brighter! But the other way is as darkness – the path grows darker and darker, more and more confused. For those who never come to a place of understanding, they seem to keep on stumbling without ever knowing why!

The world never stops screaming at us with a great sense of urgency, attempting to draw us away from the feet of the Master. Shiny baubles, worthless things that promise pleasure in whatever form personally preferred, always seem to dangle before our eyes. AND/OR troubles seem to ever mount before us, tempting us to focus on the cares of this world. However, God gives wonderful promises to those who are willing to stop thinking of themselves and their own pleasures or troubles and seek His Kingdom and righteousness first (Isaiah 58). Jesus came to set the captives free – to give them beauty for ashes and joy instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:1-2). Indeed, the Lord satiates His people with His goodness (Jer. 31:14) and causes us to ride on the high places on the earth (Isa. 58:14). That’s a lot better “high” than drugs, adrenaline, stress hormones, or dopamine could ever provide! And it’s a “high” that won’t leave you “running on empty.”

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled”
(Matthew 5:6).

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Goleman, D. (1995). New York Times. Severe Trauma May Damage The Brain as Well as the Psyche. Retrieved
March 1, 2009 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html? res=990CE7DD1431F932A3575BC0A963958260&sec=&spon= &pagewanted=all

Holland, E. (2006). Medical News Today. Stress Hormones May Play New Role In Speeding Up Cancer Growth.
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WebMD Medical Reference from eMedicineHealth. (2007). Causes of bipolar disorder. Retrieved February 28, 2008
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Zodhiates, S. 2000, c1992, c1993. The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.) . AMG
Publishers: Chattanooga, TN