Making Space for the Holy Spirit

By Rev. Caitlin Childers Brown

Pastor and Minister of Service & Community

This past weekend, the church embraced the question: How can we practice being faithfully present as a body of believers and here on Briarcliff Road? For me, the winter retreat was a time of prayerfully hoping and dreaming as we considered what our next steps might look like as a church. I was encouraged by the openness of everyone present and the deep desire to continue the good work of Highland Hills. We talked about uncomfortable things like proclaiming the gospel, reconciliation and making space for the least. Throughout all of our conversations though, both the easy and the difficult, one common thread appeared—as a few of our wise members said, we need to make space for the Holy Spirit. We need to make space to discern what the Spirit of God is doing in the life of the church and in our own individual lives. 

These next few weeks are the lead-up to Lent, which starts on February 14. For me, the last few weeks before Lent are always the time of considering what new practice I might pick up or let go of to make space for God to move in my life. I didn’t grow up observing Lent, but I love practicing it as an adult and making it an intentional time of spiritual redevelopment each year. Next week, we will have more information in the newsletter about the church-wide Lenten theme. In the meantime, though, in light of the retreat, I want to pose these questions:

What would it look like for you to make space to engage with God for the 40 days of Lent?

How might making room for the Holy Spirit to move in your life let you celebrate Easter more fully?

What practice would it be helpful to pick up or let go of so that you might better practice being faithfully present to God?

My prayer for us as a church is that as we embark on this next season, we continue to practice faithfulness and cultivate our hearts so that we might be open to the good work of God in our lives.