God Hole
“There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes, I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath.”—Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life.
Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman studying law in the Netherlands in the 1940s who lived down the street from Anne Frank. She died at 29 in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. She kept a diary of her inner life, published after her death, describing the severe persecution of the Jews in Holland during those times.
Her transformation from fear and hate to love, caring, kindness, and compassion for those suffering around her makes her an icon for us today. Through the help of her psychotherapist, she learned to see the God hole in people and situations during those unbelievably troublesome times and fill that God hole with the love she had known.
This is indeed our ministry as spiritual friends. Each of us has a hole in our mind, our heart, and our body that only God can fill. So, instead, we try to fill it with relationships, food, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sports, work, power, family, writing, reading, and patriotism.
We can also fill it with hate, persecution, bigotry, self-centeredness, intimidation, cruelty, negativity, pessimism, hopelessness, despair, apathy, and indifference. As spiritual friends, God calls us to help each other find that God hole and fill it with the best unconditional love we can muster.
It begins with our presence with each other and listening.
I remember a dear friend who comes into my office at the hospital early one morning about a relationship that had recently broken up. He was depressed, sad, broken-hearted, and in tears. We talked for some time. But, mostly, I listened and tried to let him know how much I cared about him.
Late in the conversation, I mentioned the God hole. Somehow, he intuitively realized that this relationship had completely filled his God hole. I only had to say very few words. Then, a light bulb went on. I rarely mention the God hole when someone is suffering so greatly, but something moved me to bring it up that early morning.
Hopefully, the Holy Spirit was guiding both of us.
