Les Henson
We each need time, space, and even a place to be alone, both with ourselves and with God in this world of incessant busyness. Finding the time is never easy unless we make time or set aside the time each day, each week, each month, depending on our routine and the flow of our lives. It does not always need to be routinised, but it needs to be regular, even in an unordered way. Some people need time each day, while for others setting aside weekly or monthly blocks of time better fits their personality, temperament, and lifestyle.
Space is also important. By space, I mean a setting that allows one not to be interrupted by the mundane necessities of life, plus an environment that facilitates openness to God and sets us free for relaxation, solitude, meditation, and engagement. Place and space, of course, are closely interrelated. We each need a place or places that can become a sacred place because of their very nature. Not all places or spaces can become sacred; however, when we find that combination of place and space where we are free to be ourselves both before ourselves and before God, we are in a sacred or holy place.
It may be a very ordinary place or space in the eyes of others, but for us, it becomes one of those special places where we are free to encounter God without inhibition or restriction. In all his goodness, love and grace, such places are those where God encounters us in all our fragility, unworthiness, and inadequacy. It is not something magical. Instead, it is something sacred. The fact is that we each need the sacred to enter into the profane and mundane reality of our lives if we are to be fully human, for to be fully human is to be holy or whole in the biblical sense of the term. Holiness is not simply an ethical reality but also a relational reality that stems from walking with and encountering God in the context of the profane and mundane aspect of our lives.