A Wide Place

 January 28, 2023

“The LORD…set me in a broad place.” —Psalm 118:5

Most of my favorite places are on mountaintops (around here, they’re mere hilltops, but they have to suffice) where I can see for miles. There’s something about a vista stretching before me that invigorates. Whatever lies just beyond that hill in the distance beckons, and as I stand in the fresh air gazing into the distance, I feel free. 

The same feeling comes when I can see a long stretch of road before me, especially when I’m on my bike. I don’t have to travel fast; as a matter of fact, when I’m on my bike, I prefer the back roads with their twists and turns, each one a doorway to another scene, another view.

Linda prefers to be home. When she learned our house was for sale, she was enthralled. It’s nestled in a gulley between two steep shale cliffs, sheltered by towering spruce in our front yard. She’s happiest when she’s cleaning, rearranging furniture, or working in her garden. A woman’s nesting instinct is strong in her. She feels safe and secure when the space around her is close. 

I’m sure there are plenty of people who will disagree with what I say next, but it’s OK. I don’t need someone else’s affirmation to certify my beliefs. Back in the 80’s when I served on our denomination’s Board of Ordained Ministry, I noticed that the most prized characteristic in a candidate for pastoral ministry wasn’t theological orthodoxy, but a nurturing spirit. It was important to the system to have pastors geared towards taking care of the saints, whereas an adventuresome and aggressive personality was frowned upon. 

This was quite advantageous to the women candidates who by nature were nurturing types, but I watched more than one male candidate give up in frustration when his in-your-face confrontational manner was routinely squelched. We had many nurturing type male candidates too, but those who would stand on a mountaintop and describe a widening future to those in the pews were few and far between. I suspect that’s one of the reasons why so many of our churches are dying; a church can only take care of its own for just so long before it shrivels and withers away. There’s a time for the nesting instinct, but there is also a need for a warrior who sees the battle lines in the distance and calls for a frontal attack.

When God sets us in a wide place, it’s a time to look with wonderment, but also an opportunity to scan the horizon for signs of the enemy. We can’t do that hunkered down in our cozy little churches. Like Moses, God calls his followers to the mountaintop to meet him, but also to gain a new vision of the future to which we are being called.