Day #1: Find a Sacred Space
Your First 30 Days on Mission
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35
Have you ever been to those places where the presence of God is so palpable that you feel as if you are standing on holy ground? It’s as if time slows and you are conscious of everything around you. You can hear your heartbeat in your chest as a sense of peace and tranquility envelops your body. You feel what cannot be put into words. You feel warmth…belonging…love.
The Celtic tradition has a name for this location, they call it a “thin place.” A thin place is where heaven and earth collide and the holiness of God meets the humanness of humanity. A place where the beauty of the Creator is shown to the brokenness of his created. A place where we are given a glimpse of the glory of God. This is a place where the door that divides the unseen world from our own is cracked open for a moment and we are able to peek into the other side.
Sacred space can take many different forms and be practiced in a multitude of ways. In the first house me and my wife lived in I created a prayer closet. I cleared out my office closet and put a chair, a lamp, and a Bible in it, along with lists of prayer reminders that I taped all over the walls. This became sacred space for me.
Another time I was leading a mission trip in Leon, Mexico and I took the group an hour and a half away to Guanajuato. As the group shopped I went into the local basilica and was completely overwhelmed with the presence of God. Hours felt like minutes as I knelt and poured my heart out to God.
Currently there is a Methodist chapel on a college campus across the street from my house that I go to on a regular basis to sit and be alone with God. Sacred space can be created anywhere. Where do you go to be alone with God? Where is your sacred space? Where is your place of solitude?
It is in the quiet moments of solitude that we learn to hear his voice in the busyness of our world. Missional living is birthed in these moments of silence and contemplation.
Find your mountaintop.
Find your solitary place.
Find your place of prayer.