Ghost towns are almost ubiquitous on old western TV shows and movies. Echoes of the past seem to reverberate off the empty store fronts. Those empty buildings are a memory of a distant past, full of laughter, fun, excitement, romance, children, and life. Every year that passes, one more building falls down. More weeds grow up. More wild animals take over. More spider webs appear. Ghost towns are reminders that once something has been abandoned, without the care of continual upkeep, the normal course of events is downward. Death and destruction are the end result.
Unfortunately, too many people have lives that are similar to ghost towns. They have no direction. They have no fire burning in their hearts. They have so substance to their lives. Their minds have no direction. Their hearts have no passion. God is not in their life, so their life is purposeless, hopeless, and without any significant value.
Jesus warns us of the danger of empty lives: “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. “Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (Luke 11:24-26).
The fact is, we do not “walk” with empty lives for long. Either Jesus fills our hearts or Satan does. But, like the ghost town, if Jesus is not the passion of our lives, we are doomed to decomposition and death.
Paul Holland
