Space

Space

I was disappointed with God. After a week of 

hard paddling, we had planned to give the boys 

a light last day so they could spend the afternoon 

in solitude with God before heading to life back 

home.

It had been a great week. Lots of deep talks. 

Vulnerable moments. God moments. But I 

wanted to give God one more chance – one 

more opportunity to speak into these guys’ lives.

Turned out it was God who didn’t give us a 

chance. Over night the wind had shifted. What 

on paper should have been an easy paddle to 

Bear Creek, all of the sudden became one bear 

of a paddle. The guys did great, though. We 

pushed through morning, through afternoon 

and into evening. We had just enough time to 

unpack and change into some dry clothes before 

eating dinner.

Most of the guys shrugged off changing and fell 

to sleep. So much for my grand idea that God 

might want to actually speak to them…

Several months ago I read this passage from a 

short essay entitled “Moving from Solitude into 

Community Ministry” be Henri Nouwen. He writes 

this:

The word discipleship and the word discipline are 

the same word -- that has always fascinated me. 

Once you have made the choice to say, "Yes, I 

want to follow Jesus," the question is, "What 

disciplines will help me remain faithful to that 

choice?" If we want to be disciples of Jesus, we 

have to live a disciplined life.

By discipline, I do not mean control. If I know the 

discipline of psychology or of economics, I have a 

certain control over a body of knowledge. If I 

discipline my children, I want to have a little control 

over them.

But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means 

"the effort to create some space in which God can 

act." Discipline means to prevent everything in your 

life from being filled up. Discipline means that 

somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not 

preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to 

create that space in which something can happen 

that you hadn't planned or counted on.

It’s convicting to me to think about how I “craft” my 

quiet times, how the most “space” I give God during 

a worship service is during “silent confession” when 

the twenty seconds feel like eternity, how I “plan” 

how God is going to meet those I minister to – how 

I “plan” how God is supposed to meet me.

Nouwen’s charge “to create space in which something 

can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on” 

for me has been revolutionary.

What if I gave God space each day?

What might he do?

…I walked down the beach, not far. It was fifteen 

minutes to dinner, and I was going to have to wake 

up the guys. But I got far enough that it was just me, 

the water, and God if he was listening.

I said, “All right God, if you have something to say to 

me, you’ve got like fifteen minutes to say it.”

Wouldn’t you believe he spoke!

It was as if all he needed was the invitation…like he 

had been waiting for it all this time…

I took out my journal and tried to keep up as tears 

welled in my eyes.

What he said was so personal it’s unnecessary to 

tell you here. Perhaps another time. But what I do 

want to tell you is that God just might be waiting for 

his chance to get through to you.

So what do you say? Will you give God some space? 

One morning, will you lay aside the devotional, maybe 

even your Bible, and carve out some space just for 

God?