Thin Spaces
AUGUST 2023
Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46: 4 NIV
There are tales of supposed holy sites, holy ground, where it seems conditions are opportune to experience the presence of God.
Eugene Peterson also wondered about these stories and wrote about Flathead Lake, Montana. “I sometimes wondered if something like that could be going on in this place. I sometimes wonder still.”
In my May 2021 devotional, I wrote of a small island in the Inner Hebrides, called Iona. It is known as a “Thin Space” where heaven is no longer so far from you. The space between where God is and His vast earth, is wildly thin.
Like Eugene, I wonder still about places like this.
In my book, Strategic Cheriths, I wrote about being home on my parent’s farm and at dusk walking through a field of freshly mown hay. I was in a place where so much had gone wrong and I was audibly letting Him know how I was barely hanging onto a thin thread of faith for my future. Gazing into the setting sun, I asked Him, are you really there?
Suddenly a lone sparrow sprang into flight, prompted by an unseen hand and I watched it climb and draw a heading toward the setting sun. I stood there with a tear on my cheek, watching this little bird until it was only a speck and then no more. It was a thin space, for the Creator had just drawn back the veil and in that moment, I felt His tangible Presence. I looked behind me, expecting to see Him as the words of Matthew 10:31 entered that valley for me: “Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
I will be finishing my staff role at Peace Portal Alliance Church at the end of this month. It comes with anticipation and yet sadness, though I sense my Captain directing me to create new capacity. I want to experience thin spaces and I believe they are not limited to certain locations, rather, when we most need God, the space can become thin.
As I write this, the devastation of the BC fires is raging and there are some, who I know, have lost their homes. Oh, my heart and prayers are with them. They also so need a thin space, where they linger and know, God is there.
I leave you with the same six convictions, I wrote in May 2021. They are wonderments, like Peterson mused on as he canoed Flathead Lake.
I am convicted of focusing on my conscious efforts to be useful and effective, rather than lingering in the thin space of God’s Presence.
I am convicted for not believing in God’s vast power, which is oh so near, a thin space.
I am convicted for using my own reasoning, when I need to remember, things are not what they appear, as He is at work in my thin space.
I am convicted for being too intense on my circumstances and completely losing sight of His Presence and in the words of my golfer friend who is having open heart surgery before the end of August, “I am in the palm of His hand.” That sounds like no space between He and I at all.
I am convicted that I do not live like the birds of the air, the lilies, the stars – simply and unaffectedly. Thin spaces are not complicated.
I am convicted for forgetting just how close God is and that I am in a thin space right now.
From my “Thin Space” to yours, I leave you with the words of Psalm 23. May they remind you of just how close God is and you do not need to worry, be anxious or fret. God has you in the Palm of His Hand. He will see you through to the other side of your thin space and we know we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2
The Lord is my shepherd.
I have all that I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows.
He leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
Even when I walk through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
~ Bruce
