You can't fill a spiritual void with logic

Reflection

There is a difference between having an answer and feeling settled, and many people discover that even when their intellectual questions are addressed, something in them still feels restless or empty. Logic and argument have their place, and Christianity has never asked believers to abandon reason. Yet a purely rational case for God, however carefully constructed, rarely satisfies the deeper longing that Augustine described when he wrote that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. This is because the emptiness many describe is relational rather than intellectual. It is a longing to be known, forgiven, and loved, not merely to have a correct set of beliefs. Jesus offered himself as living water, telling a woman at a well in Samaria that whoever drank the water he gave would never thirst again (John 4:14), a promise aimed squarely at that inner void rather than at settling a debate.

Questions to sit with

• Have you ever had a question answered logically but still felt unsatisfied underneath?
• What do you think you are really longing for when you feel spiritually empty?
• Where do you currently look to fill that kind of void, and does it work?

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