Finding White Space Amidst the White Noise
Trigger warning: This article is not about what cultural semantic bias may lead you to think it's about.
I can only imagine how the phrase “white space” triggers people. This article has nothing to do with the unchangeable external attributes of human beings.
Instead, think about the design principle of white space and how you can apply it to your life and relationship with the unchangeable attributes of God.
Reading will wait. First, close your eyes, and breathe deep.
Deep breathing is the prelude to a pause that calms your heart and focuses your mind. Breathing deeply gives way to silence, which makes it possible to listen and hear.
One thing to remember: God never shouts to make himself heard. When we fill our lives with noise, as if to kill the silence, we miss the whisper that speaks life and says, “You are mine.”
I watch how our culture works. We try to kill the silence and fill our lives with the white noise of activity in pursuit of meaning: a ceaseless din of work, exercise, church, meetings, shopping, travel, and more.
It all piles up. Why does it seem as if time compresses and the pace of life quickens when we’re busy? No wonder we feel weary and exhausted at the end of the day. We become frantic, the deadlines of our own making threatening to undo us. The urgent supplants the important; everything seems like it needs to be done simultaneously; there is no room for white space.
When do we rest?
White space is a design principle. It’s the space around the objects on a page or in an environment. White space ultimately draws attention to what matters or separates what issues from the visual and spatial noise surrounding it.
In music, it’s the quiet between movements; in journaling, it’s the pause of your pen before you commit your thoughts to paper; it’s the space between the paragraphs on this page.
When applied to living, white space is the time you allow for reflection, dreaming, thinking, prayer, and meditation. White space appears when you stop and when you say no.
Jesus found white space. More than once, the gospel of Mark shows us how: he went into the hills; he found “isolated places” where he could pray, early and late in the day. Why would Jesus, who had the fullness of God dwelling within him, need to find quiet places to surround himself with solitude?
He was entirely God, yet he was fully human. It wasn’t his deity that needed to find white space; it was his humanity. Jesus was like us in every way in his humanity, with the same spiritual resources and physical limitations we have. Like Jesus, we need to find quiet places to pray and to seek clear direction from our heavenly father.
Our culture emphasizes doing. Activity and results are valued over reflection and solitude.
What we desperately need is white space. Space for pray-ers, dreamers, and thinkers with a bias for action after receiving clear direction from their heavenly father.
Time is a limited resource. Will you allow yourself to be enslaved to the tyranny of the urgent? Or will you let yourself sit back, close your eyes, and breathe deeply?
Work, family, school, or church is just one part of your life. It is not who you are; it should not define who you are. God calls you to be his child and become more like Christ. Your entire life is a glorious opportunity to fulfill and express your calling in a way that is uniquely yours and unique to his call upon your life.
You don’t need to spend much time waiting on God to reveal your calling. He clarified that you are responsible for following, trusting, and obeying God. Our problem is that we’ve confused calling with vocation. You’re more likely to understand your calling when you separate yourself from noise and distractions and listen in the quiet for the voice of God.
Our purpose is to glorify God everywhere, with everybody, in everything. Our calling is to follow and obey Jesus. God sets us free to live out his purpose and calling in a way that meets the need of a noisy world:
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
― Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC
God entered this world as a child. Mary held Jesus close, felt his breath on her skin, and let his breath mingle with hers. The time for doing it would be later. The time for being present was now. At that moment, there was white space.
Jesus spent 30 years in preparation for three years of intense and intentional living. He worked, he studied, and he learned. He knew his purpose; he understood his calling. He saw the end, yet throughout his last three years left room for white space—to breathe, to pray, to rest—and to remind himself of what matters.
Jesus spent time alone, intentionally. Will you spend time alone intentionally? Will you say no, will you listen, will you breathe deeply? Let Jesus hold you close; let your breath mingle with his. Be present.
Find your white space.