Black Hole

You’ve heard the analogy or metaphor, “black hole.” I use it on a regular basis (hopefully not too much). Actual “black holes” are very mysterious and subject to much speculation in what people call ‘the field of science,’ perhaps astrophysics or astronomy. If you look at a dictionary definition, a basic one, you get one, “a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape,” and, two, “informal, a place where people or things, especially money, disappear without trace.” The metaphor is the latter. I use it for time. You look to where you will expend your time and if it seems like something just eats up time, you might call it a “black hole” as it relates to time. You put more and more in and it just eats up the time with what seems like very little to show for it. I believe that we can feel that way about serving the Lord. We do something for the Lord that takes a whole lot of time and it seems like there is very little to show for it. It seems that way, but it is not true. Whatever you pour into the Lord’s work has value, even if you don’t see any results. The actual black hole can be what you do in the world. It might not seem like a black hole, but it actually is one. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Work for the Lord, right work and properly motivated, never goes into a black hole. None of it is loss.