What Are You Doing About That Hole In Your Head?

Believe it or not, you have, as one might say in the speech of the inner cities of America, a hole in your head. You and all the rest of mankind have something missing. All your life you have been trying to fill that figurative hole – that feeling of emptiness and yet, you are still unfulfilled. This is why you are always driving and never arriving – getting but never having –seeking and never finding. That is why you “can’t get no satisfaction.”

Yet you can discover what you have been searching for all your life. You can fill that feeling of emptiness with the “right stuff” that satisfies!

So you have that void, that figurative hole in your head, but where did it come from and who put it there? To find the answers, let us go all the way back to the creation of man.

Man is unique in all of creation. We are the only creatures that look like God, yet we are the only creatures that God purposely made incomplete. Even though we look like God, we are a long way from being complete like God.

Man is incomplete in that he is mortal and will die (Gen. 3:19; Heb. 9:27). On the other hand, God is immortal spirit (John 4:24). But the most important difference is that man’s mind is incomplete- there is something missing. What are humans missing? You were born missing the mind of God.

When Almighty God made your physical brain, he also put a spirit entity there to give you intellect and reason ability. This spirit also gives you the ability to receive another spirit- God’s Spirit-- that is needed to make your mind complete.

The apostle Paul explains: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him” (I Cor. 2:11)? This spirit is what we call the human mind. But notice what the rest of the verse says: “Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” Your spirit plus God’s Spirit equals a whole mind fulfilled and satisfied. But your spirit minus God’s Spirit equals “a hole in your head,” and a hole in your head equals frustration and unhappiness.

But beware, there is a counterfeit spirit that promises fulfillment, but it cannot deliver. That spirit is from Satan the Devil, “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who no works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).This spirit promises pleasure and power but delivers only self-centeredness and misery and death.

Our all-wise Creator God deliberately created your mind incomplete so that you would be motivated to fill it – with his Spirit. By the laws of physics, whenever there is a vacuum there is a drive created to fill it. The same is true in man’s mind. Man is driven to be fulfilled, but by himself he hasn’t discovered how to do it.

So there are two ways to fill that emptiness, but only one really works. From the beginning God showed and told man the one way that works. God showed the first man the nature of his incompleteness and the way to wholeness. Did you ever think about the significance of God creating man out of the dust of the ground, thus leaving, one might say, a hole in the ground? The lesson is plain: Unless man fills the vacuum in his head with God’s Spirit he will return forever to the hole in the ground from whence he was taken.

What about the inescapable lesson of man’s first sensation of hunger? God (see Gen. 2:15-18) may have said: “That’s your stomach, Adam. You have to eat the right food, and then you will feel satisfied. The emptiness you feel in your stomach is the like the emptiness you have in your mind. You not only need food, you need my Spirit in your mind to be fulfilled and satisfied. If you do not partake of my Spirit, you will feel empty and frustrated, hating your very life.”

 “You see those two trees over there; the one on the right is the Tree of Life. That is the tree to eat; it will fill that spiritual emptiness in your head. That tree represents my way of life – the way of give, the way of love produced by my Spirit.”

“That other tree is called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Do not eat of that tree. It looks good, but its fruit is bad and you will die from it. Spiritually, it represents the way of get, the way of selfishness, the way that seems like the right way to fill that spiritual void in your head. Naturally, you think you are filled when you get and take, but taking only fills you with unhappiness, misery, and eventually death.”

“I am leaving it up to you, Adam – you must develop your own character by choosing between the two trees, but choose the way of give, and live!”

Adam soon became aware of the emptiness within him. Perhaps he said to God, “I feel like I am missing something in my life. I do not feel satisfied inside. I need something but I don’t know what it is.” Then God may have said: “You have an emotional hole; you are only half, not whole. You need a wife. She will complete you and make you whole.” Then God put Adam to sleep, and by taking one of Adam’s ribs made a woman (Gen. 2:21-22).Then God closed the rig cage in the man and the woman filled his life at his side.

For the moment, Adam was very happy with his new wife and said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Now he felt whole – he thought in his life, that Eve was the end to his search for fulfillment, But God knew better.

Unfortunately man chose the way of get. Satan deceived Eve, Adam’s wife, into believing that the way to happiness, the way to fill the hole, was by getting instead of giving. And humans have followed that way of get ever since.

For millennia, man has exhausted himself in frustration, trying to fill his life with the way of get, self satisfaction!

Man failed to fill his head with the mind of God because he was not repentant when God called attention to his error in choosing the way of getting instead of giving. Repentance means change, and Adam and Eve did not see the need to change. Having eaten of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they thought they had all the answers.  But they did not!

They did not fully understand what their spiritual emptiness meant. They did not accept that only being half there was not good enough – that half is not whole.

Repentance is more than realizing that you have done wrong; it is first realizing that you are incomplete! You must come to understand that there is none good but God. You must come to see that you do wrong because your mind is incomplete. And until you come to admit that you are wrong, you will never have a whole mind. God gives his mind to those who realize they are not whole, and want to change their lives. God only gives His spirit to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32).

Adam and Eve could have repented of what they were and surrendered to their Creator. In such an attitude of repentance and submission toward God, they would have been able to resist Satan’s temptation of satisfying self, of trying to fill the hole in their heads by getting and taking.

Through the Tree of Life they would have gained the missing dimension to their minds, the mind of God through the Holy Spirit. Their minds would have been filled with the mind of God.

And what is God? What is the very essence of his mind and being? “God is love” (I John 4:8). And love is the way of give – the way of outgoing concern: total selflessness.

What does the way of get produce? Can you ever get enough to fill the hole in your head? The truth is, the way of get won’t get it filled. What happened to man after Adam and eve chose the way of get?

Their son Cain, whose name ironically means to take or get, killed his brother Abel. Why? Cain did not give God his best. He lived the way of get and kept the best for himself. On the other hand, righteous Abel lived the way of give and gave God the best that he had. Because of Abel’s attitude of give, God granted him favor. This infuriated Cain, he was jealous. He wanted to get favor for himself. With all the frustration and rage that the way of get produces, Cain killed his brother (Gen. 4:1-8).

Man has been reaping ever since the bitter fruits that the way of get produces. The apostle James wrote this commentary on the way of get: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? You lust and do not have and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:1-3). The way of get does not work!

Perhaps you are not convinced. Maybe you still have the idea that if you had everything you ever wanted, then you would be happy. Wise King Solomon tried it. He got for himself everything a man could want, but did it satisfy? Let’s hear what Solomon had to say.

“Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure. I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine. I made my works great; I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasure of kings and of the provinces” (Eccl. 2:10, 3-4, 6).

What was the end result, Solomon? “Then I looked on all the works that my hand had done and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Eccl. 2:11, 17).

Is there anything that really fills the emptiness, the void Solomon speaks of? Of course there is! Let’s listen to King Solomon again.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13).God gives his Spirit, his mind, to those who obey him, who keep his commandments.

But what about you, aren’t you tired of riding on this crazy merry-go-round of get that always brings you back to where you started, to that same old condition of frustration and unhappiness? Well, you can get off that merry-go-round. You do not have to ride it. Almighty God is showing you a better way, the only way to what you really want and need in life.

Repent of what you are. It is obvious that something is not quite right in your life, something is missing. And now you know what‘s wrong. It is you! The hardest thing for a person to do is admit that he or she is wrong. No matter who you are or what you do, without God’s Spirit in your mind you are nothing. The psalmist David wrote: “Certainly every man at is best is but vapor” (Ps. 39:5).

In terms of human standards, Job was a man of great accomplishment and moral character, but when God finished showing him the hole in his head Job said: “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).

Get down on your knees before your Creator and ask him to forgive you for breaking his laws and for having a mind that is selfish and miserable. Once you repent of trying to fill that figurative hole in your head through the get way, you are freed from your self to go on and be fulfilled by giving love to others. Society had many false concepts about love; you need to understand what true godly love is.

Love is God inspired. Of course, God is the source of love. And love is giving. The apostle Paul said, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). He inspired the desire to help others through the power of his Spirit in your mind.

Then you must choose to make a commitment to give. After you decide to commit yourself to give, start giving to the other person without expecting anything in return, not even a thank-you. Many people give and still end up unhappy with the hole unfulfilled. Why? Because they give with the expectation of getting something in return. Others give only when they feel the other person is deserving. Neither of these attitudes expresses true love. Love is unconditional: it requires no deposit, no return, just pure giving.

You are incapable of giving this kind of love; you need God’s continual help to give in this totally unselfish way. The apostle Paul realized that “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure’ (Phil. 2:13). So, let God love through you. And since it is his love, why should you expect to get anything in return anyway?

Love is its own reward. When you allow God to give through you, happiness and joy automatically fill you. On the other hand, when you try and get for yourself to fill that gnawing hole in your head, unhappiness and misery fill your life. This is why Jesus Christ said, “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

And whom do you love? Whom do you give to? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind” (Matt. 22:37).You love God by dedicating your whole life toward serving him, and obeying him, doing his will.

When David felt frustrated and unfulfilled, when that emptiness in him cried out for fulfillment, he knew what he needed: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God” (Ps. 42:1-2)? David knew he needed God to fill the hole in his head. What about you?

Not only do you need to love God, but “‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:39).In seeking to satisfy the needs of your brother, your most important need is satisfied. In filling the hole in your brother’s (or sister’s) life, the hole in your head will be filled.

Love is the answer. Giving is the way to all you want and need. That old hole in your head need not go empty any longer. Use that drive inside you to lead you to love God and help your fellowman.

If you would like to learn more about God’s way enroll today in our Mini-Correspondence Course. You will be glad you did.

 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864