So stand still with your wounds and your damage and your weapons and all the baggage of your life. Flawed as you are, you stand on holy ground. Your life so far is the earth you stand on, upright to heaven.

This is the ground that god has cleared for you. Moses stood and faced God on desert ground. He was a fugitive from the murder of his youth, exiled and in danger. There was blood on the ground, blood on his hands. H e knew that he had killed and could kill again. Yet there was the place he had to face God. This was the holy ground, the burning ground. The space between earth and heaven..

This is the blessed space, the space that God the creator hollows out for you, the place where [God's] word is spoken and heard, a space which neither darkness nor chaos can finally overwhelm. God meets you here, and nowhere else.  

(Angela Tilby, Let There Be Light, DLT, 1989)

Communities of faith exist to hold space as sacred so that people can cultivate their soul's own presence. Sometimes churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. try to indoctrinate, motivate, or manipulate people toward believing certain things, supporting certain causes, or opposing certain points of view. When this happens, these communities of faith miss the opportunity to invite the timid soul to show itself. And we miss the chance to fulfill our calling.

In my experience of church, there is a tendency to get so involved in the structures and content of Christian worship services, for example, that they become an end in themselves. Instead, they need to be a way for the community to hold open sacred space so that important questions can be asked, spiritual journeys can be nurtured, and each person's authentic self can emerge in the presence of a welcoming community and within the life of the Spirit.

In many ways, all the gatherings of our communities have the potential of being sacred space, holy ground. These gatherings are opportunities for each of us to claim our gifts and our ministry. All who gather for worship are worship leaders. We minister to others by the way we ourselves enter the experience of worship. At times, we minister to others by the ways we are attentive to their needs, even if they just need space to experience worship on their own. Worship is a space we hold and in which we move to touch and support. In this way, our gatherings mirror the whole of our journeys.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price FYI - Jack has published several articles at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jack_F_Price

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