People have no peace in the world, but they have no disturbance when they are with God. — Bernard of Claiveaux
For more than 3 years, I’ve been a part of a 
group of folks at FirstLight who create a sacred space for worship each Sunday. This effort takes people and time to transform a cafeteria into a place of worship. Tables are rearranged, chairs added. Signs for where things are place around the worship area, screens and sound equipment put together. Then the Ambiance team sets to work with table coverings, candles and the like, all to create a space for worshiping God. In the end, FirstLight the church plant, the mobile church, opens it doors to all seeking God.
There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of God. A contemporary poet Sharlande Sledge gives this description:
sacred spaces exist outside what we can create for FirstLight. We often compartmentalize our spiritual practices, our spiritual existence by defining them by place or time. We come to ‘worship’ on Sundays and read Bibles in the morning. We have a ‘workplaces’ and an ‘family life’ all defined by spaces or locations and times in the day.
The kicker is that this perception is very far from the truth. The presence of God exists outside of the Sunday mornings, outside of Bible studies, outside of Prayer chapels. Family. friends and work all blend together in a myriad of everyday life events and our spiritual lives themselves are an outflow blanketing all our activities. God’s presence is in our homes, our workplaces, with friends, at the supermarket, in an open field, and driving to work.
The carpenter can do better work if he talks quietly to God about each task, as Jesus surely did when He was a carpenter. — Frank Laubach
There is a saying that you get what you measure. I think this is the case with God as well, but should be rephrased. Where you look for God, you see God. Where you feel or see God at work . . . that is a sacred space.
Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day. Take some time this week to find ways to improve God’s world. Take time, also, to thank God for the world around. After all, no matter where you are this sacred space is probably less than three feet from you right now.
Deana
He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Deuteronomy 10: 21
Ohana, thank you for this beautiful post.
Since entering into a Sacred Space Worship Circle two years ago, I too have seen the thin veil lifted. I see God doing many good works through you, my friend. I see Him in my stepson’s growing faith. I heard and smelled His presence this morning in a refreshing pre-dawn thunderstorm, and in the song of the robins as they feasted on God’s bounty.
To paraphrase Paul Giamatti as John Adams (on HBO), God sends us to live and die on this earth.
Happy Earth Day.
Niiiiice!!!!!