Where do you go to get close to God?  Where are the significant spiritual locations in your life?  The early Celtic people believed that you could go to certain places to be closer to God.  The referred to these as “thin places,” geographical locations where there is only a thin line between the past, present and future, between the divine and the human.  

Agnes Norfleet writes,

“This Celtic sense of place designated significant natural locations as “holy trees, holy mountains, holy wells.” They were fascinated by shorelines where water met the land, by fjords and rivers, by wells where water bubbled up from deep below, by doorways which were the meeting places from the outside and inside. These places spoke of meeting, of transitions from one state to another, ‘where the veil between this world and the next is so sheer you can almost step through.’”  Over the years, the Celtic understanding of “thin places” broadened from not only geographical places, but special moments when the holy became more visible, when a person was able to “encounter a more ancient and eternal reality within the present time.”

Do you have a particular place that is holy to you in a similar way?  Can you recall a particular moment in your life when you felt especially close to God?  When was the last time you revisited a time or place of spiritual awakening? The significance of sacred places is not necessarily the places themselves.  “Their power lies within their role in marshaling our inner resources and binding us to our beliefs.”  Sacred moments, special memories, favorite pieces of music, significant words spoken at significant moments in our lives – my guess is that we all have experienced “thin places” whether we have been aware of them or not.

Certain passages of scripture can take us to such places.  Psalm 27 is one such passage. 

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Come, my heart says, ‘seek God’s face.’ Your face O Lord do I seek. Do not hide your face from me. I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

” I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living…”

These words lead us to a place of encounter with God, where human and divine, eternal and temporal cross paths and create a “thin place.”  Lent invites us to a deeper intentionality in our living.  Lent invites us to “get closer to God,” to seek out those places where and moments when we are able see more clearly “the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living.”  

Where are the thin places in your life? When was the last time you paid a visit?

At a young age, I took up an interest in basketball.  Watching Pistol Pete Maravich play like no player had ever played before, I became intrigued by the fast paced nature of the game and the free-flowing, high scoring, run and gun style of play that characterized NBA basketball in the mid 1970’s.  I remember sitting transfixed on Sunday afternoons watching games on TV.  I would see a wild shot and then immediately go outside and try to replicate what I had just seen.  When big name NBA players would compete in simple games of H-O-R-S-E, a novelty back then, I would see a shot and then go outside and try to perfect it… around the waist, through the legs, off the back board…left handed, one-handed, finger roll, no backboard…25 foot shot from the left baseline, no rim, nothing but net… I remember Pistol Pete being asked one day how he was able to do such amazing things with the basketball.  His reply, “Practice, practice, practice.”

My uncle, who was like a surrogate father to me, saw my interest in the game and decided that I needed a proper basketball goal and court.  He erected a goal in his yard and it became the spot of countless hours of practice.  Day after day, year after year, balls bouncing on the ground, feet pounding down the grass…all this took its toll on the yard.  Not long after the outdoor court opened, a bare spot began to form in the yard.  Over the years, the spot grew larger and larger as the practice became more intense and the neighborhood pickup games more frequent.  Eventually, no grass ever grew on or even near the court.   The landscape of the yard was forever changed.

Today, the goal is long gone, but that spot remains.  Each time I visit, I am reminded of the time I spent there working on my game, practicing my moves, improving my shot.  Practice changes us.  It affects the landscape of our lives.  It perfects our imperfections and helps to transform our weaknesses into strengths.  To this day, I can pick up a basketball and shoot with a certain degree of confidence because of all those years of practice.   I can recite my alphabet because of practice.  I know my multiplication tables because I practiced them so much as a child.   The key to life…practice.

Clearly there is a lesson here about faith as well.  Many people claim that Christianity is defined by a set of beliefs…those who believe the right things are the true people of faith.  But for me, the Christian faith is defined more by a set of practices than by a set of beliefs…worship, prayer, study, service, communion, fellowship, witness, generosity, hospitality…these are the faith practices that form and shape us.  The more we practice them, the more the landscape of our lives is transformed.  The more we practice them, the more visible the Spirit’s presence becomes in our lives.  The more we practice them, the more grounded we become in our faith and the more faithful we become in our witness.

Lent has arrived once again.  Its call is ancient, but its invitation is ever relevant…”practice, practice, practice.”

 
With appreciation to my friend Tom Miles, I post this tiny bit of holy heresy…

for those of us who have kept the faith for forty plus years as well as those who are recent converts. 

 

Peyton Manning, after living a full life, died and went to heaven.

When he got to heaven, God was showing him around.

They came to a modest little house with a faded Colts flag in the window.

“This house is yours for eternity, Peyton,” said God.

“This is very special; not everyone gets a house up here.”

Peyton felt special, indeed, and walked up to his house.

On his way up the porch, he noticed another house just around the corner.

It was a 3-story mansion with a black and gold sidewalk, a 50-foot tall flagpole with an enormous Saints logo flag,

and in every window, a New Orleans Saints towel.

Peyton looked at God and said “God, I’m not trying to be ungrateful, but I have a question.

I was an all-pro QB, I hold many NFL records, and I even went to the Hall of Fame.”

 

God said “So what’s your point Peyton?”

“Well, why does Drew Brees get a better house than me?”

God chuckled, and said “Peyton, that’s not Drew’s house, it’s mine.” 

 

“As for the saints who are in the land,

they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.” 

Pslam 16:3 NIV