Zero is an unsung number.  Never very popular and not usually or willingly chosen.  No one says “wow you’re a zero” at least not in a nice way.  Athlete’s don’t yell “We’re number Zero” People don’t boast when they say “my life is a big zero” “my business is a zero”. Even Sesame Street left out Zero. Yet Zero may be one of the most important numbers of all.  By definition “zero” is a reference to the value meant by nothing.  If one looks in the dictionary we find such words as, “One having no influence or importance; a nonentity,  having no measurable or otherwise determinable value.”  Yet I think that Zero has great value.  Without Zero for instance a “1″ would mean nothing.  In fact no number would have a reference point if a zero did not exist.  When I bring this into my Christian Walk with God I see several applications. 

 

First Almighty God created out of nothing that which was something. 

He created heaven and earth.  In the beginning there was nothing.  God created “ex-nilo” from zero.   When I think of that I am reminded that nothing is impossible to Him.  When I think my life has no value, and I have no place to drop my spiritual anchor.  That I am pretty much just a zero.  He can create something new.   Sometimes the times when we are “formless and void” are just those zero times when the Creator can make something that can be said, “and God saw that it was good”.  So while a zero to someone without Christ is grounds for depression, for the Christian, it is simply another opportunity to by Faith allow the Spirit of God to hover over my mess and make it His Message.  Zero number one.

There is a Second aspect of Zero one can look at. 

If you place a 1 beside a zero, it becomes a 10.   In an honest appraisal of who I am I come to the realization that when the Bible says, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins” there isn’t much there.  Dead is dead!  Zero Life.  Not feeling poorly like a 6 on a scale of 1-10.  Not an injured “4″.  Not mortally wounded “2″ and not even a gasping the last terminal breath “1″.  Dead is dead!  Zero life.  And that is how Jesus found us when He gave his life for us.  Many try to arrive at Christianity with the “I’m getting better and better every day”.  Zero’s don’t do that.  Some try to say, well God did most of it and I did my part.  Paul said “if it’s of works then it’s not of faith”.  Zero’s see themselves as they are “all my righteousness is as filthy rags” and they fall into the sacrifice of Jesus.  Under the shelter of His Blood the ONE stands over us in a moment that which was a zero is now seen as righteous and pure and complete, a 10.

Zero is also a place of humility.

It happens when we bend our stiff necks and let God be God.  Zero is also a place we need to get to at times.   Its like Laptop batteries.  At times they seem to charge less and less and ultimately one needs to simply drain them to zero.  So it is with me.  As long as I mix some of me in with His Life and provision I end up with nothing.  Zero.  It is exactly what Jesus said in John 15.  “apart from Me, you can do nothing”. 

About the author
ICCA Charter member James G. Johnson is a licensed and ordained pastor for almost 40 years. He holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern and an M.Div from Talbot and recently completed his second doctorate. He has achieved the Board Certified Master Christian Life Coach credential from the Board of Christian Life Coaching. (find out how you can join James and some of the top Christian Coaches in the world by visiting, http://iccaonline.net/credentialing/ )

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