Praise for Relaxed Pace and Open Space

Lord, thank you for this hurry-free season. I’ve found that days lived at a relaxed pace and with open space are not only a huge whole-life blessing, but are necessary for my creative process.

Still, this blessing, like so many others, sometimes strikes me as alien. Perhaps that’s because it pushes against the go-go-go, fill-up-every-second, busy-is-best culture. So, at least momentarily, the arrival of a relaxed pace and open spaces feels like an unwelcome guest. As I squint through the peep hole at these strange, culture-defying visitors, the part of me that’s enslaved to performance and busyness gets nervous. Shall I open the door? Shall I let these aliens in? What might they do to me?

By your grace, I open the door. Just a crack at first. Immediately, a soft and refreshing breeze drifts into my hurry-weary life. At first, I hold my breath, unsure of this new gale. When I finally cautiously sip the air, I find it so refreshing, so revitalizing, and so rejuvenating that I quickly throw off all restraint. I begin gulping this new breeze like a man who’s just surfaced after being held under water way too long. Ahhhhhh….

Perhaps this interior work of Your divine grace – the grace of embracing a relaxed pace and open spaces – could be considered a work of art in itself. It’s an interior artwork that beautifies, transforms, and brings interior wholeness. But it doesn’t stop there. It radiates outward through my life to transform my exterior artwork; the way I sketch and shape and build my physical sculptures. My new brook/trout console sculpture and the aspen leaf sculpture are two tangible, external examples of this fruit. Interestingly, both of these concepts required the merging of ideas, images, creative conversations, and dreams that could only come together in an open space at a relaxed pace.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you.