[Jesus said,] “When an evil spirit comes out of anyone, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”

–Luke 11:24-26 (TNIV)

Nature abhors a vacuum and if we believe our Lord, so apparently does the spiritual world. Jesus here is reminding us that it is not enough to be cleansed of the spiritual ills that beset us (he tells us this in the wake of just having healed a demoniac). Something must fill our souls, either good or evil.

What our Lord is telling us, therefore, is that we need to fill our spirits with the Power and Presence of God. If you ignore your spiritual disciplines and the means of grace available to us–e.g., regular Bible reading and study, prayer, worship, partaking of the eucharistic sacrament, et al.–you will be inviting spiritual maladies to visit you. “You are what you eat” goes the old saying and it is true as well with our spiritual lives. If we focus on, and put our energies in, the things of this world and things secular, we will become like that on which we focus. If we focus on, and put our energies in, Christ and do your part to develop the relationship, we will become like him.

The choice is clear. We either turn into something good or evil and we only do the former with the help of God’s Spirit living in us. As Jesus reminds us earlier in this passage, we are either for him or against him. Neutrality or non-decision becomes a decision to be against him.

Think carefully about these things. In our modern-day world, we tend to poo-poo things spiritual, but we do so at our own peril. If you care at all about your own holistic well-being–mind, body, and soul–you will heed Jesus’ advice and populate your spirit with the Spirit and Source of all life.