RESTORE
This chapter from the BFG Handbook (Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching) presents the gospel through a new "Expression" of God’s Love to RESTORE the Truth.
Chapter 11 from the BFG Handbook (Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching) presents the gospel through a new “Expression” of God’s Love to RESTORE people to the Truth.
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Chapter 11: Body and Spirit
We assemble spokes to make a wheel
But the usefulness is the emptiness of the hole that allows rotation
We shape clay to make a pot 1
But the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water
We hammer wood together to make a house 2
But the usefulness is the emptiness that provides the livable space
Therefore, what profit is the body 3
Without the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit?
The Open Center of the Wheel
“We assemble spokes to make a wheel
But the usefulness is the emptiness of the hole that allows rotation”
Chapter 11 of the Christian edition of the Tao Te Ching, titled Body and Spirit, uses the imagery of creation and construction to illustrate the importance of the “emptiness” within, which can be understood as a metaphor for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The chapter begins by describing how various objects—such as a wheel, a pot, and a house—derive their usefulness not from their solid material parts but from the empty spaces they contain. The emptiness in a wheel’s center allows it to rotate, the emptiness within a pot holds water, and the space inside a house provides a place to live. These examples highlight the concept that it is the unseen and intangible “emptiness” that gives these objects purpose.
Look first at the wheel. The spokes are the strong, visible part, and we tend to think they do the work. But a wheel whose center is filled in cannot fit on an axle. It cannot turn. Everything depends on that open hub, the one part that looks like nothing at all.
Our lives have spokes too: work, family, school, plans and goals, all pulling outward. The chapter invites us to guard the center. When we leave room at the hub for God, everything else can move around Him instead of grinding against itself. St. Paul told the people of Athens where our movement really comes from.
“For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’…”
Acts 17:28NRSVue
The prophet Ezekiel once saw wheels that moved wherever the spirit went, “because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels” (Ezekiel 1:20). Chapter 11 will name the true Spirit at its end. For now, the wheel teaches a simple first step: keep the center free, and let God be the One who moves you.
“Be still, and know that I am God!…”
Psalm 46:10NRSVue
“One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter.”Catechism 2710
“The presence of constantly new gadgets, the excitement of travel and an endless array of consumer goods at times leave no room for God’s voice to be heard.”Pope Francis, Gaudete et Exsultate 29
Your calendar is full before the week even starts. Work, practice, appointments, the group chat that never stops, the show everyone says you have to watch. Every spoke is pulling at you, and somehow your life feels stuck instead of moving. Chapter 11 says a wheel turns because of “the emptiness of the hole that allows rotation.” Without an open center, all those spokes just grind. A few quiet minutes with God is not one more thing on the list. It is the hub that lets the rest of your life turn.
Try this today: Leave one empty space in your day today, with no phone and no plans, and spend it simply resting with God.
Clay in the Potter’s Hands
“We shape clay to make a pot
But the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water”
Next the chapter moves to the potter’s wheel: “We shape clay to make a pot.” The verse this line points to tells us who is shaping whom. God is the Potter, and we are the clay. He has been shaping us from the beginning, ever since He formed the first man from the dust and breathed life into him.
“Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8NRSVue
In Jeremiah, the prophet watches a potter whose pot is spoiled in his hands. The potter does not throw the clay away. He shapes it into another pot. God told Jeremiah, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18:6). When our lives crack or collapse, He keeps working. Nothing is too ruined for His hands.
And every pot is made for one reason: to hold something. “The usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water.” A beautiful pot that cannot hold water has missed its purpose. Jesus told us what water He longs to pour into the empty space inside us, and who that water really is.
“…“As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive…”
John 7:38-39NRSVue
“The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual… ‘then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.’”Catechism 362
“The Holy Spirit is the living water ‘welling up to eternal life’ in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ.”Catechism 2652
Maybe you feel like a cracked pot right now. The marriage that did not work out. The degree you never finished. The habit you keep falling back into. You look at yourself and see only the cracks. The potter in Jeremiah saw something else: clay he could still shape. Chapter 11 reminds us that a pot is not valued for how perfect its sides look, but for what it can hold. God is not done with you. He is still shaping you, and He still means to fill you.
Try this today: Pray Isaiah 64:8 slowly today, “We are the clay, you are the potter,” and hand God one part of your life that feels cracked.
A House with Room to Live
“We hammer wood together to make a house
But the usefulness is the emptiness that provides the livable space”
Then comes the builder: “We hammer wood together to make a house.” Jesus spent years doing exactly that, and His neighbors knew Him as “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3). Beams, walls and roof all matter. But nobody buys a house to admire the lumber. We want the space inside, the room where life actually happens.
The verse this line points to shows how God builds us. Scripture is the frame, given so that we are ready for every good work. Notice the word Paul uses: Scripture is “useful.” It is not there to make us look impressive. It frames an open space where God Himself can live.
“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17NRSVue
And God truly wants to live there. Jesus promised that the Father and He would come and make their home with anyone who loves Him. The prophet Habakkuk, in the chapter’s other verse, looked ahead to a day when God’s glory would fill the whole world. It begins in the livable space of one heart that opens its door.
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Habakkuk 2:14ESV
“…even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me’, says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him’…”Catechism 260
“…recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us.”Catechism 2711
Think about your home on a busy night. Laundry on the couch, the TV on in one room, someone gaming in another, everyone eating at different times, everyone on a screen. The house is full, yet there is hardly any room to actually live together. Chapter 11 says the usefulness of a house is “the emptiness that provides the livable space.” A home is not made by more stuff or more activity. It is made by space kept open for each other, and for the Lord who wants to live there too.
Try this today: Clear one small space in your home today, a table or a chair, and make it a place to pray, even briefly.
A Body Made for the Spirit
“Therefore, what profit is the body
Without the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit?”
From a Christian perspective, this principle speaks to the crucial role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. Just as the objects are rendered useful through their emptiness, the body, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, has little eternal value. In Romans 5:3-8, Paul speaks of how suffering can produce hope and character, ultimately leading to a deeper relationship with God, facilitated by the Holy Spirit. This suggests that it is not the body itself, which is perishable, that matters most, but the spiritual life that God imparts to us through His Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul reminds us that “you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you.” This aligns with the chapter’s message that the true value of the human body is found not in its physical form but in its capacity to house the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is what brings life and purpose to our being. Without the Spirit, the body, though made of flesh, cannot fulfill its higher purpose in God’s kingdom. This idea is echoed in Isaiah 64:8 and Jeremiah 18:1-11, where God is depicted as the potter, shaping us, the clay, into vessels for His divine purposes. The emptiness inside the vessel, however, is essential for holding His living water.
The chapter’s closing question is not a put-down of the body. The Church is clear that the body is good. God made it, the Son of God took a body in Mary’s womb, and He rose from the dead in that body. Our bodies are meant to rise too. The question asks what the body is for, and the answer is breathtaking: it is meant to be a home for God.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20NRSVue
That is why the chapter speaks of “the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit.” The space inside us is not left vacant. At Baptism the Spirit comes to live there, and He keeps pouring God’s love in. St. Paul even promises that this same Spirit will one day give new life to our mortal bodies.
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11NRSVue
So the profit of the body is not in how it looks, how strong it is or how much it can earn. It is in what it carries. A tired body, a sick body or an aging body, filled with the Spirit, can still love, pray, serve and offer its suffering to God. That is a life of real worth.
“…man is not allowed to despise his bodily life, rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and honorable since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.”Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 14
“Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte ‘a new creature,’ an adopted son of God, who has become a ‘partaker of the divine nature,’ member of Christ and coheir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.”Catechism 1265
“In expectation of that day, the believer’s body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person, especially the suffering…”Catechism 1004
The Church holds both truths together: the body is good and will rise, and its highest dignity is to be a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Everyone around us is working on the body: step counts, diets, workouts, skin care, the filter that fixes everything. Caring for your body is good; it is a gift from God. But it is easy to feel that the body is the whole story, and then aging, illness or one bad photo can crush us. Chapter 11 asks, “what profit is the body without the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit?” Your worth is not in the mirror. You are a temple, and God Himself lives in you.
Try this today: When you look in the mirror today, say quietly, “Holy Spirit, You live here. Help me honor You with this body.”
Living the Chapter
The whole chapter, put into practice
Ultimately, Chapter 11 teaches that just as the value of the wheel, pot, and house lies in the space they provide, the true value of the human body is realized through its role as a vessel for the Holy Spirit. Without this spiritual indwelling, the body remains incomplete. It is through the Holy Spirit’s presence that the body can be fully used for God’s purposes, transformed, and made effective in the world. This chapter, thus, emphasizes the importance of the Spirit in our lives, aligning with key biblical principles that underscore the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the source of life and purpose for believers.
To live this chapter is to stop measuring life by the solid parts alone. The spokes, the clay, the wood and the body all matter, and God made them good. But their purpose is found in the space they keep open. So we guard a quiet center each day, we let the Potter keep shaping us, and we keep a room open where Jesus can live.
Mary shows us the way. She did not come to God full of her own plans. She was the humblest of vessels, completely open to Him, and the Holy Spirit filled her so fully that the Son of God took flesh in her. Her answer to the angel can become ours, every morning.
“…I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.…”
Luke 1:38ESV
And what fills us is never meant to stay inside. A full pot pours. The love the Spirit gives us is meant for the people at our table, at work and down the street. St. Paul says we carry this treasure in fragile jars of clay, so that everyone can see the power is God’s, not ours.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
2 Corinthians 4:7ESV
“What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.”St. Augustine, quoted in Catechism 797
“She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty.”Catechism 722
The Catechism is speaking of Mary: the Holy Spirit prepared her to be the perfect vessel, open and ready to welcome God.
Your coworker seems to have it all together, but she mentions she cannot sleep. Your brother is always busy, always posting, and lately always tired. The neighbor’s house is full of nice things and strangely quiet. So many people are full on the outside and empty on the inside. You do not need perfect words for them. You need to be a vessel God has filled: someone who listens, prays, and brings a little peace into the room. The living water in Chapter 11 is meant to flow from you to them.
Try this today: Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you this morning, then look for one person today who needs a little of what He gave you.
RENEWAL
The Trinitarian M.A.P. is the method for RENEWAL, where God’s Love shapes our MINDSET, Trust in the Son directs our AIM, and Faith in the Holy Spirit guides our PRACTICE.
This chapter offers a new “Method” for the New Evangelization to RENEW our hearts and minds through the Trinitarian M.A.P. Bring this chapter into your day with the BFG Companion App. Pick Chapter 11 and an area of your life, and get Guidance made for you.
Renewal starts in the mind. Chapter 11 opens a workshop: “We shape clay to make a pot.” Isaiah, in the verse this line points to, tells us who the real craftsman is: “We are the clay, you are the potter,” and he calls that Potter “our Father” (Isaiah 64:8). We are not self-made. A loving Father formed us with His own hands. So our worth does not come from the outside of the pot: the job title, the body, the followers. It comes from the One who made us, and from what He made us to hold.
Then comes the surprise: “But the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water.” Most of us treat our empty places as proof that we are failing: the quiet evening with nothing planned, the ache no success has filled, the question we cannot answer. A mind shaped by the Father’s love thinks differently. That emptiness is not a flaw in the pot. It is room He made on purpose, so He could fill it. We stop rushing to stuff it with noise and let Him pour in what we really need.
Try this: When you feel an empty, restless moment today, do not reach for your phone right away. Pray instead: “Father, You made this space. Please fill it.”
Isaiah 64:8NRSVue “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
Jeremiah 18:6NRSVue “…Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
More Scripture: Jeremiah 18:6 · Genesis 1:27
A renewed mind needs a direction, and Chapter 11 hands us a hammer: “We hammer wood together to make a house.” Jesus knew that work well. His neighbors called Him “the carpenter” (Mark 6:3). He built real things with His hands, and He knew that a house is not built so people can stare at the walls; it is built so people can live inside. So we aim our effort the way He did. We work hard and we build, but we keep asking what it is all for: a home where God is welcome.
The line goes on: “But the usefulness is the emptiness that provides the livable space.” Jesus does not want to be a picture hanging on the wall of our lives. He promised, “we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). When Martha’s house was full of busy work, He gently told her that Mary, sitting at His feet, had “chosen what is better.” That is our aim: to keep a room open in our day where Jesus can sit with us, and we can listen.
Try this: Pick one chair or corner of your home today, sit there quietly with Jesus for a moment, and tell Him He is welcome to live in every room of your life.
John 14:23NRSVue “…Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Luke 10:41-42NRSVue “But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.””
More Scripture: Matthew 7:24 · Revelation 3:20
Renewal becomes real in daily life, and Chapter 11 ends with a question for each of us: “Therefore, what profit is the body without the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit?” St. Paul, in the verse this line points to, answers it: “you are God’s temple and… God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16). The body is not a cheap container. It is holy ground. So we practice honoring God with it: real rest, pure eyes, kind hands, and a phone that does not get the first and last word of every day.
But a temple can be clean and still feel empty. The chapter speaks of “the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit,” a space that is not left vacant but filled. St. Paul tells us how: “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). He even says our sufferings can become a road to hope. So we ask, every single day, to be filled again. Jesus promised the Father will give the Holy Spirit “to those who ask him.”
Try this: Before you start your work today, put a hand on your heart and pray, “Come, Holy Spirit. Fill this temple today.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20NRSVue “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
Romans 5:5NRSVue “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
More Scripture: Romans 8:11 · James 1:17
In short: think humbly, aim at what is eternal, live by the Spirit. Let the Father shape you like clay, keep a room open for the Son like a carpenter’s house, and let the Holy Spirit fill the space that only He can fill.
RESPOND
Renewal brings the transformation of our spirit with ardor, empowering us to RESPOND to the call of holiness and make disciples of all nations. This encourages meaningful dialogue to embrace shared truths that transcend cultural and religious boundaries.
Renewal does not end with us. A pot is not filled so it can sit on a shelf; it is filled so it can pour. Chapter 11 says “the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water,” and Jesus promised that “rivers of living water will flow from within” everyone who believes in Him. What the Spirit pours into you is meant to reach someone else. You were made to hold living water, and to share it.
In 1983, Saint John Paul II called the Church to an evangelization that is “new in its ardor, new in its methods, new in its expression.” The Gospel never changes. The way we carry it must be alive for our time. Chapter 11 shows why: a world that measures people by their looks, their output and their things needs fresh words about the space inside us that only the Holy Spirit can fill.
Ardor is the fire of a heart that has been loved by God. People feel it before they hear a single word. Chapter 11 asks, “what profit is the body without the emptiness indwelt by the Holy Spirit?” The fire of mission is not our own energy; it is the Spirit living in us.
Use the words people use today: simple, honest and personal. Share your story, not a lecture. Chapter 11 speaks in wheels, pots and houses, things anyone can picture, so share your faith in everyday pictures people already understand.
Meet people where they are: on the phone in their hand. The BFG Handbook and the BFG Companion turn one conversation into a path to Christ and His Church. Chapter 11 says a wheel works because of “the emptiness of the hole that allows rotation.” Our tools work the same way: they clear a little space in a busy day so God can move.
Use the words people use today: simple, honest and personal. Share your story, not a lecture. Chapter 11 speaks in wheels, pots and houses, things anyone can picture, so share your faith in everyday pictures people already understand.
What my life was like before I really met Jesus.
How He met me, and the moment things began to change.
What is different now, and the hope I carry. Like the pot in Chapter 11, when did an empty season in your life become the place God filled?
Meet people where they are: on the phone in their hand. The BFG Handbook and the BFG Companion turn one conversation into a path to Christ and His Church. Chapter 11 says a wheel works because of “the emptiness of the hole that allows rotation.” Our tools work the same way: they clear a little space in a busy day so God can move.
Every chapter has its own song and is written in a language people of every faith can understand. A doorway for dialogue. Chapter 11, Body and Spirit, helps anyone who feels empty inside, worn out by busyness, or unhappy with their body.
A friend shares a struggle. Together, pick a chapter and an area of life (start with Chapter 11 when someone feels empty inside, burned out by a full schedule, or judged by how they look). In seconds: a reflection, the M.A.P., a saint, a prayer, Scripture, a song and a church nearby. Send it by email, PDF or a share link.
Hard question? Ask it together. Answers are grounded in Catholic teaching, the saints and the BFG Handbook. Talk or type. Try asking together: “If my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, what does that change about how I live this week?”
Pray the Rosary with a guided voice, the daily mysteries and beads that follow along. Pray it with someone, even over the phone. In the Annunciation, Mary makes room for God with her yes, the most beautiful picture of Chapter 11’s vessel “indwelt by the Holy Spirit.”
Catholic churches near anyone, with Mass and Confession times, directions, and one tap to add a time to the calendar. Every conversation can end at a church door. There, in Holy Communion, Jesus comes to dwell in the very body Chapter 11 calls a home for the Holy Spirit.
Morning, midday and evening prayer reminders, a daily streak and a steady prayer rhythm help a new believer keep going. A daily pause keeps the hub of the wheel open, so your whole day can turn around God.
Free to start, no card needed. Read aloud in 48 languages.
One tool that walks with a person from the first question to the church door.
Jesus sent His apostles first to Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Start where you are. Chapter 11 says a house is useful for “the livable space,” so the people who share your space every day are your first mission.
- Pray the Rosary together on Pray My Rosary.
- Bless your children at bedtime.
- Share a Guidance with a spouse or child who is struggling.
- Find Sunday Mass times together with Church Finder.
- At dinner, read Chapter 11 and ask: “What fills up our home, and is there still room for God?”
- Text a verse from your Guidance.
- Ask, “How can I pray for you?” and pray right then.
- Invite a friend to Mass, then go for coffee.
- Send the line: “We shape clay to make a pot, but the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water.”
- Be the calm, kind one.
- Pray on your lunch break with a reminder.
- Start a small chapter group that meets once a week. Begin with Chapter 11, Body and Spirit.
- Respect the rules: invite, never push.
- Listen for the moment: “Things have been hard.”
- Offer: “Can I send you something that helped me?”
- Share the Chapter 11 song.
- Ask good questions and really listen.
- Share your three-part story.
- Open Ask BFG together when a question comes up.
- When a friend says they feel empty, share that Chapter 11 sees emptiness as room God made for Himself, not as failure.
- Visit the sick, the elderly and the lonely; pray the Rosary with them.
- Serve at a food bank.
- Welcome newcomers at Mass.
- Join your parish evangelization team.
- Ask shops, cafés and offices to display a BFG card with a QR code.
- Offer a short lunch talk on faith at work.
- Business owners: offer the Companion to staff as a free gift, never a requirement.
- Go where people already gather, and be the friendly one who listens.
- Pray quietly for the people around you.
- When a talk turns real, share a Guidance or the chapter song.
- Wear or carry a simple sign of your faith, like a cross or a rosary, that can start a conversation.
- At the gym, where everyone is working on the body, share that Chapter 11 calls the body a home for the Holy Spirit.
- Host a Chapter 11 “Body and Spirit” night, a Handbook chapter night, a Rosary night or an “Ask Anything” faith night.
- Show the Companion on a big screen and let people try it.
- We did this at our free conference, The New Evangelization in the Age of AI, at Christ Cathedral.
- Share a Guidance, a chapter song or a Scripture card. Try: “But the usefulness is the emptiness that holds the water”
- One post can reach someone you will never meet.
- Join a parish or diocese mission trip.
- The Companion speaks 48 languages, so you leave behind something that keeps speaking after you go home.
- Wheels, clay pots and houses are found in every culture on earth, a natural bridge to the Holy Spirit who longs to dwell in every person.
- Your parish ministries, the Legion of Mary, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Charities, prison, hospital and campus ministries, and mission groups.
- Bring the BFG tools to their work.
You do not have to be full of answers to go. Chapter 11 says a pot is useful because of “the emptiness that holds the water.” Go as you are, open and humble, and let God fill you along the way. Go gently. Go with joy. Go together. The same Spirit who renewed you now dwells in you and sends you, so that living water can flow through your life to others.
Father, our Potter, who made us to hold Your Spirit, Holy Spirit, set my heart on fire. Jesus, send me to the one You love. Father, make me Your witness today. Amen.
NRSVue © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. Used by permission. All rights reserved.