Tag: Thin Places

“Thin places” are thick places. Celtic tradition regards sacred spaces as “thin” because they are in essence the place where heaven and earth kiss one another. But if you have ever been to a place that has the feel of a thin place, you also know the weight spaces like these carry. The atmosphere of a thin place is thick with the presence of God. 

As I write this, the college I graduated from, Asbury University, is experiencing a revival. This was not a planned conference or a manufactured experience, but an ordinary chapel that has become something extraordinary for the students and the community involved. Witnesses are describing the atmosphere in Hughes Chapel as thick. When I heard that word I was transported back to my twenties, during an all-night prayer vigil I joined in the same chapel.

 It was late and as I prayed the air became swimmingly thick. As if molasses had joined forces with the oxygen we breathe, each inhalation became rich and sweet. A weight pressed around my body as if I was held by the Divine. I recall having an internal vision of all the saints that preceded me in that place and the many saints that would come to that place in the future. What I saw in their posture and presence was love. Not dogma or right ways of being, but authentic expressions of connection to self, God, and others. 

This vision continues to be a memory of consolation, and a reminder of God’s goodness across generations. We do our best spiritual work when we are actively falling in love with the creator, who is always falling in love with us. A love like this spills into the universe, touching individuals near and far. The reach of this embrace cannot be measured, it is a thin place unleashing the weight of glory into the air we breathe. It is holy just as you are holy.