The Secret Of The Empty Shelves
By: Jackie Deems
Tags: Gods Presence, Crisis Management, Christianity, Christian Living, Hopelessness

My husband merchandises for a big box store and said it was looking pretty bleak. I hadn’t been to a big box store for weeks but after hearing what my husband said I figured I’d venture out to get some basic essentials. What I saw shocked me and I am not shocked easily at this stage of my life. The shelves were empty save for some not so essentials.

I also saw panic, shock and disbelief on the faces of so many people, people my age, people of all ages. I’d heard stories of people who fought over the last can of ravioli but figured that was just make believe. As I slowly walked aisle by aisle I realized this was far from make believe. It was a kind of Twilight Zone moment for me.

I have never seen a store so barren in my whole life. I have been fortunate to grow up in America — the land of plenty — the greatest country on earth. And even though my childhood was far from affluent, we always had food, aisles and aisles of food to choose from.

My mother often told me of her life as a young girl in Belgium during the war when her food was rationed daily: 1 piece of dry bread, 1 piece of potato and water. Not even clean water. It scarred my mom and haunted her for life.

I understand why now. Because there were no options. There was no way out of that despair and hell except death. There was no way to change things, no control for those living in it. There was no hope.

As Americans we are so used to having things our way, right away. Life on demand. We have become entitled. We are spoiled. We have taken for granted life would always be the same.

And then this. The early stages of one virus is all it takes to change us, to panic us, to cause us to think only of self?

I refuse to believe it and so I seek those positive stories about people helping each other. I seek the acts of kindness and fill my reading time with those instead of the (partly) media caused and fueled negative stories that are continually blasted out to us. The stories that take away hope.

But still, still, I wonder why so many are so easily panicked? Why are so many so easily persuaded to despair when just weeks ago our world was normal?

I believe there is a secret to the empty shelves most of us would never acknowledge or confess to. The things we have easy access to: electronics, entertainment, food, clothing, etc. fill needs we can’t fill with relationships. We hurt emotionally — we don’t feel like we’re good enough — we feel unloved — we buy “stuff” to help fill us up.

We hoard, we collect, we fill our lives with “stuff” to try and fill the hole in our souls. All the while we are getting a quick fix until that one wears off and we need another. We are pleasure addicts. If it makes us feel good we buy it, do it. Yes, there are some things in life we need. There are some basic necessities. But much of what we collect or hoard (food included) is unnecessary.

All this stuff is worth nothing in the end and will be just a useless pile of junk that someone pays 50 cents for at a thrift store. All our precious “stuff” auctioned off to the highest low bidder.

All this chasing after the wind, trying to fill the hole in our souls is useless when we substitute things with the only One Who can fill it. We can spend our lives pursuing stuff to fill up the hole in our souls or we can simply — or not so simply in times like this — look to God, the only One Who can permanently fill up that hole in our souls.

And when I, when we, allow Him to fill it, we will not panic. We will have hope. Everlasting hope.

Matthew 6: 19–21 says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Jackie Deems

Copyright 2020