Most visitors to the
office suite where I work find the watercolor painting that hangs in our
conference room to be off-putting. It depicts an old county prison, viewed from
the cemetery of a neighboring church. Ominous tombstones stand guard as silent
sentinels outside the prison’s walls, while thick black smoke billows from the
prison’s chimney into a sky already choked with dark clouds.
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| "The Old Montgomery County Prison from St. John's Graveyard" by: W.L. Zeigler |
Imagine the surprise of
those who comment on the painting when I respond that it portrays my favorite
spot in town. That little cemetery, tucked away behind an empty church and an
abandoned prison, is a lush patch of green in the mostly gray city-scape of Norristown, Pennsylvania. Sunlight filters through the rustling leaves
of the cemetery’s large shade trees. Shadows dance across the plot’s mossy
grass and grave markers. Birds find sanctuary in the canopy above, singing in
delight after finding a place to roost that’s not made of brick or stone. It is
a peaceful place that’s surprisingly full of life.
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| St. John's Episcopal Church Graveyard - P.W. Newcomer |
On particularly
stressful days in the office, I make a habit of taking a break to get up from
my desk, leave my office building, and walk around the corner to that old
cemetery. There I gather myself, I pray for wisdom, courage or patience, and sometimes
I just listen. Those little walks do so much more to change the trajectory of
my day than another cup of coffee or a snack that I don’t really need.
My walks to the Saint
John’s Church cemetery came to mind when I was reading a sermon my father preached
entitled “Clearing a Space.” In that message, Dad asserted that the exhaustion and
stress that so many of us experience goes much deeper than a time management
problem. “It is a spiritual problem with a spiritual solution. The place to begin is to understand that God is the one who renews. This reorientation
of our lives is not something we can engineer or empower. True spiritual
renewal begins with God.
What do we have to do? We must clear a space in our
lives and give God a chance to do his thing. Spiritual growth is not so much
what we do as it is what God does in us when we give God the opportunity.
The classic spiritual
disciplines of prayer and meditation are the tried and true means of clearing a
space for God in our cluttered lives. Prayer and meditation over God’s word
help us to put the nitty-gritty of our lives in perspective, to spend more time
on what is important and less time on the less important.
However, we must be
careful because prayer itself, if done in the wrong way, can be just another
thing to do in an already over-crowded schedule. It can become a way of keeping
God out rather than letting Him in. We discover this when we come to realize,
at what is a rather advanced stage of Christian maturity, that prayer is
primarily listening to God. Soren Kierkegaard once said, ‘A man prayed, and at
first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet
until in the end he realized that prayer is listening.’
It is so helpful (and I
urge you to try this) to create in the course of your busy day, while you’re
walking down the hall or driving in your car, little windows to God, not
telling him anything, but just consciously giving him room to shed his light,
his perspective on what’s going on right now in your life. Just pause and
remember that God is there; listen. How can God ever speak just to you if you
never allow yourself to be alone, listening for him?
Of course, the spaces
we create for God in the course of the day do not in themselves produce change;
they only provide the place where change can occur. In the end it is up to us
to say ‘yes’ to the God who confronts us in those spaces, to say ‘yes’ and
accept his Lordship, not only over the spaces, but over all of life that lies
between the spaces. When we do that, slowly but surely, we will find life
changing for us. Old desires will diminish in intensity. New interests and
activities will replace them. Life will become more relaxed, more purposeful,
deeply satisfying. The dreariness of the
treadmill will be replaced by the excitement of running a race, and we will
give others the gift of our time instead of feeling that they are ‘taking our
time.’
Best of all, God will
be an immediately present personal reality rather than an indistinct figure on
the back shelf of our mind. I invite you to clear a space here and there in
your busy life, then step back and be amazed at what God will do with it.”
From: "Clearing A Space"
Scripture: Luke 10:38-42
Preached at Paoli U.M. Church
