Take a breath, settle and read the words of a Persian poet from the 13th century who was interested in connecting with God. 

“There’s a morning when presence

comes over your soul. You sing like a 

rooster in your earth-colored shape. 

Your heart hears and, no longer frantic, 

begins to dance.”

     ~Rumi

I read that the other day not for the first time. It is beautiful to me. “Presence comes over your soul.” That simply arrested me with its loveliness. Certainly you have had a moment when you have felt the presence of God in your life. God in his protectiveness comes over your soul to not only protect it but to fill it full and hold it still for a pregnant moment, perhaps to allow something to change or evolve in us. It is the sweetest of the sweet and the finest of the fine. 

Let me add this piece of beautiful peace from Psalm 42:8:

By day the Lord directs our ways,

At night His song is with me —

A prayer to the God of my life. 

Both of these pieces of writing, though theologically coming from different streams of thought, convey an idea of creating a space to acknowledge God. As we interweave our lives with all the busyness of our days and our interactions with others, we need to be mindful to practice the art of holding space. Hold space for that intrinsic part of ourselves that sustains us – our relationship with God. If we hold that space, there is room for all the beauty that is expressed in the two pieces of writing above, to nurture each of us and give us courage and calm to know deeply within us that God is enough. In fact, more than enough. Create the space in your life and let God work within you and with you. 

If you forget why you might need to do that, reread the two pieces of writing above coming to us from centuries ago. It was important then and nothing has changed in all those intervening years. But if there is one constant in those intervening years, which is intentionally kind of a funny way to reference centuries, it is the presence of our God. I think we would do well to hold space in our lives for that! Who knows what could happen…I wouldn’t want to be the one to underestimate this indescribable unquantifiable God of ours. 

~Shauna Weil