Our journey in life begins with nothing and then ends with nothing. We brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it (1 Tim 6:7, NRSV). Realisation of our nothingness is essential for repentance, conversion, and transformation. We are made from dust, and it is to dust we shall return.

By the sweat of your face                                                                     
    you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return (Genesis 3:19).

When we ponder on this reality, that at the end of our life, we are reduced to only a handful of dust, I find it very humbling. The thought that I am just a handful of dust, just like anybody else, irrespective of all our achievements and triumphs in life, we are nothing, but dust. A wealthy person cannot say his dust is any different from the one who is homeless. Dust is just dust. There is no such things as wealthy dust, healthy dust, educated dust, celebrity dust or mighty dust. If all that we labour, if it all ends in dust, we may wonder, what is the significance of our life, if all that we do is insignificant and useless and ends into nothing, but dust. I pondered on these thoughts when I was around 12 years old, when I read the book of Ecclesiasticus. Little did I know that the Lord was showing me the end from the beginning.

The bible is not called the sad news but the Good News. However, sometimes, we need to fall before we learn to rise again, we need to go through desolation before we receive consolation. We need to come to the realisation that apart from God, we are, but dust. When we are filled with worldliness, we are devoid of God. When we deny ourselves, we will find our Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ.

The eyes of God searches for contrition and emptiness. He looks favourable on those who are bowed down. God cannot use us until we are devoid of ourselves. Therefore, God leads His saints into desolation before He can make them useful vessels.

St Paul was a perfect Jew. If anyone could have taken pride in his heritage, Paul certainly could, as he states, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:4-11).

God meets Paul on the road towards Damascus, and when Paul encounters Jesus Christ, he turns blind and begins his journey from nothingness to eternal life. God had to break him down, to lead him to repentance, conversion, and transformation. That is how Saul became Paul; a persecutor of the church, became an apostle of Christ Jesus; a sinner became a saint. After Paul found Jesus Christ, he no longer took pride in his heritage, but boasted rather in his weakness, so that the grace of God may dwell in him. He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (1 Cor 12:9).

All saints have a story, and it begins with desolation and nothingness. There is no glory without the cross. Jesus Christ tells us that apart from Him we can do nothing. Life begins with God and to Him it shall return. If we walk with Christ in this life, we will dwell with Him for eternity, rather than remaining mere dust.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:1-5).

The only way to end this nothingness of our lives is to abide in Jesus Christ, otherwise, everything we do is useless and will bear no fruit and will only lead to eternal damnation. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36).

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