Seek Negative Space

Build an oratory within yourself, and there have Jesus on the altar of your heart.

~Saint Paul of the Cross

It’s getting noisy out there, isn’t it? The music, the commercials, the shopping malls . . . it can quickly result in sensory overload. It seems as if every space is filled. For me, it doesn’t take long to crave negative space, space that is filled with nothing.

In music, we recognize negative space as silence. When musicians remove noise and strategically incorporate silence, they also add emphasis and lend definition to their work. Can you imagine an arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” performed by an ensemble of four vocalists, a horn section, three guitars, bass, and congas? No, because that stands in direct contrast to the song’s very message— standing in awe and meditating on the fact that God has become man.

Such an ensemble is also inappropriate for Advent, a time when we remember and reflect that Christ came to us as a baby in the silent night—meek and humble in the unlikeliest quarter of a small town. No fanfare, no trumpet blasts, no procession. What sense would it make to prepare to reexperience this event by filling our lives with noise on top of noise? That stands in direct contrast to this season’s very purpose. Let’s allow this Advent to be memorable not for how we try to supersize it, but for how we don’t. Seek negative space. Savor the silence. De-clutter your heart. Make room to receive Jesus when he comes.

Lord Jesus, remove from my heart all that separates me from you.

To Ponder:Take a look at your calendar. What nonessential activities can be removed so you can savor a bit more silence this Advent?
~ Lisa A. Schmidt

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