Empty Walls

Sitting on my couch the other night

Watching some neighborhood friends

Look at pictures on the walls of my apartment

Commenting on this picture and that frame,

Remembering when I moved into the Challenge House 7 apartment just six months prior

Remembering standing in the middle of my Challenge House 7 apartment the first time and seeing

Empty Walls.

I had not shed a tear when I piled my little silver car full of my clothes and bid a weekly goodbye to the house I raised my children in

I had not shed a tear when I drove the unfamiliar streets of Hopkinsville or trekked down the Walking Trail without a Hopkinsville friend to share this new adventure with

I had not shed a tear when I toured Challenge House 7 and the Canton Pike neighborhood and saw all the unfamiliar faces that seemed to share a history that I did not

But I remember shedding many tears

In that Challenge House 7 apartment

Staring at those

Empty Walls.

My heart was still raw from a hundred good-byes at my old church

My mind overwhelmed by the challenge of transitioning into a NEW LIFE in the streets of Hopkinsville

My leap of faith had left me poured out and empty

Tired of my own tattered presence

As I stared at those

Empty Walls.

I had closed my eyes and tried to picture my old walls at my house

Walls filled with family photos and favorite Bible verses

Treasured artwork and familiar frames

The empty walls of my new apartment were missing the mark of my history

The empty walls were like blank pages of a new journal

Still waiting for their script

A fresh canvas begging to be splattered with the holy hues of cherished memories

And I began to think

It happens that way sometimes, doesn’t it?

There are seasons of empty walls

When our optimism grows dim or our ambitions drain dry

When our dreams draw a blank or our expectations seem empty.

And in those times, it’s easy to grow unsure

With ourselves

With life

With God.

But empty does not always mean nothingness.

Sometimes those empty walls are the best.

Because they leave plenty of room for God to paint His story.

Plenty of room for vignettes of faithfulness and portraits of answered prayer.

Plenty of room for an earthly picture

Painted with heavenly hues of grace and mercy

By our Father’s loving hands

Because

We are a living picture created by the Anointed One,

Covered with holy colors and drawn with passionate purpose.

On once

EMPTY WALLS

And when we abandon our hearts to the Author of Life,

When we empty out expectation and surrender to His divine imagination

GOD is free to paint an adventure that is filled with more than we could ask or imagine.

And every famous picture begins

With an empty wall of canvas

Maybe God is longing to draw a new picture for each of us this year

Mine started in a Challenge House 7 apartment six months ago

Eyes full of tears

Staring at

EMPTY WALLS.