Last week, I got an up close look at the guitar of Jared Green of The Howlin Brothers. He has actually played another hole in his acoustic. Does it affect the sound? As far as I can tell, this extra hole in Jared’s hands only make it sound better.
One thing I know for sure, without holes, an acoustic guitar doesn’t make any music. Most of an acoustic guitar is space. Without space, it’s just wood, the music doesn’t resonate.
So it is with us. If we fill all our time, and allow no space, we will have little rhythm or music in our lives.
One example of just how important space is in The Bible is Zacchaeus, the famous little man who climbed a tree to see, and perhaps be seen, by Jesus. He had to separate himself, put some space between himself and others before he could both see Jesus and be seen by him.
Like me, like many of us, Zacchaeus had tried to fill his life, he had position, power, and wealth. His life was full, but he was not fulfilled. Zacchaeus was the opposite – unfulfilled, dissatisfied, and alienated. With all his wealth, he was poor. With all his power, he was week. With all his health, he was ill. In the midst of the crowd, in the traffic of the parade, he was alone. How did he enable his own transformation? He made space.
By climbing the tree, he gave himself enough space to see Jesus and be seen by him. In that empty space, he began the relationship that gave him a fulfillment he had only dreamed about through emptiness.
Space opens us to possibility. As the proverb says, It is not the bars but the space between them that holds the tiger. Without space, there is no room for life symbolized by the tiger, it is not the pottery but it is the space between the pottery which gives life. Without space, the cup would be a ceramic ball – a poor ball that breaks soon after you throw it. It is the space that allows the cup its purpose. In a similar matter, not the notes but the empty space between them that creates the music. It is the empty places that make the music. In a similar manner, it is not the walls, but the space between them that makes a home… or a church. Without space, a church would be one giant block of concrete. Space makes room for life. We call church space between the walls ‘sacred’ space.
In Genesis 1, at the end of six days of creation, God invites humanity to meet God in the empty space, the day devoid of making, but open to God. That empty time is called Sabbath.
In the Gospels, the first symbol of the early church was not the cross, but the tomb. Not just any tomb, an empty one. In that vacant space is the first encounter with the risen Jesus.
We often miss the lesson of Easter, the lesson of Sabbath, the lesson of Zacchaeus, and the lesson of acoustic instruments and music, new life happens in empty spaces. As Meister Eckhart said,
God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction.
It is characteristic of creatures that they make something out of something, while it is a characteristic of God that he makes something out of nothing. Therefore, if God is to make anything in you or with you, you must first become nothing. Hence go into your own ground and work there, and the works that you work there will all be living.
Zacchaeus became fulfilled in his empty space, in his void, there became new life.
What does God want from you? Nothing. And it may be one of the hardest things you have to give.
See what sounds an empty space can make as the Howlin Brothers sing the blues away in Hard Times
For more music from The Howlin Brothers go to http://thehowlinbrothers.com/
For more about making space in your life, coming out of your crowds, or Jesus way with Zacchaeus and the rest of us, check out these resources:
