Making Room

Today I attended our community Lenten Lunch, and was blessed by the brief message shared by a colleague. He told a story from Henri Nouwen about a man who went for counsel from a spiritual director. The spiritual director began pouring a cup of tea for his visitor, and when the cup was full, he continued to pour. The cup overflowed, making a tremendous mess; but, the spiritual director continued to pour.

Finally, the visitor shouted, “Stop! You’re making a mess!”

The spiritual director replied, “Like the cup, our lives become so full of our own opinions and judgments and dogmas that there’s no room for new understandings and growth.”

My colleague summed up the metaphor as an act of “making room for the Holy Spirit.”

I guess the application of the metaphor depends upon whether one believes he or she already has all truth, and that his or her understanding of truth is flawless. I don't buy it.

I worship and attempt to serve a God who is “always making all things new (Revelation 21:5);” thus, truth is never static. Truth is a living entity, always on the move, breathing, growing; and it is relational and responsive, adapting to circumstances emerging from God’s gift to humanity of free moral choice. I do not have the mental or spiritual capacity to comprehend truth absolutely; indeed, my understanding of the One who is the truth is, at best, incomplete.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 NRSV).

I need constantly to be letting go of some things to make room for the Holy Spirit's correctives to the errors nurtured by both my free choice and my incomplete comprehension.

My colleague does that by swimming laps. Before he gets into the pool, he gives that time to God; then, as he swims, he feels his spirit and his mind releasing the clutter that needs to go. In a very real sense, his swimming becomes a form of meditation.

I hope it’s obvious that times of prayer and meditation not only become direct channels of release, but also prepare one’s spirit so other activities can help clear the attic to make room for new understanding. I've not been a lap-swimmer; but I’ve experienced that release when I’m jogging, hiking, fishing or practicing guitar.

I think this whole idea of “making room” is what Lent is all about. I was blessed by the new perspective, as I hope you are. How do you "make room?"

That’s the way I see it through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk

Jim