In a home, there may be some glamorous rooms, regular-looking rooms, as well as empty rooms. In general, empty rooms aren’t difficult to fill; apply paint color, maybe some area rugs, furniture, and some artwork. Sometimes, however, some empty rooms can’t be filled.
For four years we had our two grandsons living with us, ages 3 and 4. Overall, we had great times together. I built them a mini workshop, got them mini tools, they’d spend hours in the pool, my wife would read them nighttime stories, and they’d bake cakes with her. We laughed, cried, danced to music and crazy songs, and watched hours of Huckleberry Hound and Yogi-Bear. But they moved far away beyond our reach. Now there’s an empty room, both in the house and more importantly, in our hearts. Some rooms are difficult to fill. Maybe you have one of your own, one you’re longing to fill.
Back in the 70’s, It Don’t Matter to Me was the title to a great song by David Gates and the group, Bread. All that mattered was the girl’s happiness because there would always be an empty room in his heart waiting for her.
On the other spectrum, there are people with empty rooms they don’t care to fill. In fact, they don’t care about a lot of things. Lots of people live under the words and concept that nothing matters to them. Whether it’s hurting others, getting their own feelings hurt, failing someone, or bailing out on others, it doesn’t matter. It’s a way to cop out; a way not to bare responsibility for actions or inactions. We can carry those sentiments into other aspects of our lives. Things like pride, indifference, intolerance, impatience, etc. can come as result of our uncaring feelings. But, when does it matter?
When parents kick you out? When the boss lets you go? When the wifey kicks you to the curb? When your kids don’t want to know about you? When you’ve got the ‘anti-Midas’ touch and all you touch goes downhill? When the doctor brings you bad news?
Most people don’t realize that when this life is over, they’ll be heading straight into another one; an eternal life. Back in Genesis 2:7, when God formed man of the dust and breathed into his nostrils, he became a living soul. As far as I know, the soul never dies. It’s eternal. As the late singer, Keith Green, once wrote: “Some people won’t find out ‘til it’s too late, that they have another life to live.” That other life, the eternal one, the one that’ll outlast your current one, can be with or without God. That’s up to you, and it’s up to us; not circumstance. As Erwin W. Lutzer writes in his book, One Minute After You Die: “One minute after you slip behind the parted curtain, you will either be enjoying a personal welcome from Christ or catching your first glimpse of gloom as you have never known it. Either way, your future will be irrevocably fixed and eternally unchangeable” (page 9, Introduction).
I’m guaranteeing that that’s when it’ll matter to everyone. Regardless of who you are or what you do, or don’t do, when we can understand that we won’t be in control of anything anymore and everything that surrounds us will occur as a result of our past doings. The wretchedness and wickedness of an unchangeable and unknown future away from God, is a ‘deadly’ responsibility that all who don’t serve God have while living. That reality is ever-looming over us as long as we walk apart from God. Sadly, not everyone gets a last-minute chance to repent, change their ways, confess their sins, and call upon God when death knocks at the door.
The time to make it matter, is now. Just as singer/writer David Gates wrote, “Cause they’ll always be an empty room waiting for you.” Jesus wrote in John 14:2, “In my Fathers’ house there are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus made room (space) for you some 2000 years ago when He went to the cross. That means He was thinking of you as He was dying. Scripture says He blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to (Christ’s) cross (Colossians 2:14 LB).
Additionally, He is making a room just for you with your name on it and just the way you like it. Now it’s time to make things in your life matter. Are you preparing room in your heart for Him? Give Him all your empty rooms. In fact, trade them for the room He’s prepared for you. No, He’s not David Gates, and no, He didn’t sing for Bread, but He is The Bread of Life (John 6:48-51), the One who can sustain you.
God Bless!
Sam
