Making space by clearing out and allowing room for God’s Spirit

March 15, 2013

Creating space by letting go 
Both our physical space and our spiritual space can so easily become cluttered.  Presbyterian minister Elizabeth Nordquist writes: “My chosen Lenten practice this year is to give myself to clearing out one space in my house every day, both as a practical way of living more simply, and as a metaphor for the movement in the life of the Spirit that is attentive to cleansing, letting go, keeping myself open to the ways of the Word that is very near me.” She suggests some practical questions we might all like to ask ourselves to guide us in not only clearing out space but also clearing out time. This post is part of a series of essays devoted to this same theme, all of which can be read on her blog, A Musing Amma, part of the Patheos site.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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