It was the first day back at work today. Since waking up, I have felt quite empty today and that did concern me. It’s a difficult feeling to explain. It’s not that I do not feel that God is there, I feel he is! But … I feel empty inside and in relation to him and what is going on around me.

That concerned me!

So … I made use of the quiet house and spent some time reflecting and ‘chilling’ with God. As I was chilling I had a bizarre idea (maybe I should be bold enough to say God spoke?!) The idea was to dig out my notebook and go through notes from conferences of the past few years.

I don’t know if you relate to this. I go to conferences – I have to go to YFC staff conference every year. The speakers are excellent. I make notes. I mean to re-read them, but I never seem to have a chance to. (I even but the speaker cd’s that I then do not listen to!!!) Well tonight I took that opportunity and started to read through notes of old YFC conferences that I had been to.

A comment from staff conference in January 2002 which Janet Whitehead made as she preached one evening hit me. They must have hit me then, or I would not have written them down, but I forgot about them. ‘Sometimes emptiness is the greatest sign of hope’

Janet went on to back up this statement by using the image of the empty tomb. The tomb of Jesus, being empty, was and still is the greatest sign of hope for you and me, and everyone we know.

Isn’t that amazing – not just the comment, but the fact that on the day I feel empty I get an idea to read through old notes and I find thatone sentence from Janet. I actually found the comment within 2 minutes and knew I did not need to read any further. God had got his message across.

I find this really encouraging to think my emptiness could be a sign of hope for me. As you know, I start a new role with YFC on September 1st and there a a few things I need to sort such as hand over to Malcolm properly and buy a car that will travel around the country without breaking down. I can now go to sleep thinking my emptiness is not as bad as I feared. In fact, it could well be positive.

‘Sometimes emptiness is the greates sign of hope’.