Every day when I go out to my car for my commute to work (which has been a while as I have had the fortune of working from home) I have my satchel over my shoulder, a bag with my lunch in one hand and my coffee in the other. I slide into the driver’s seat, put the bag on the floorboard, the coffee in the cup holder and the satchel on the passenger seat. Then I plug my phone in and put on a podcast that will keep me distracted until I arrive.
However recently, once I am cruising absent mindedly on the freeway 15 or so minutes into my 35-minute commute, I have had a clear thought stand out to me. It says, “make a seat for the Lord.”
It has historically been tricky for me to discern the voice of God, though lately more and more it has stood out among my other thoughts. And generally, thanks be to the Spirit, it is followed by a near compulsion that I try not to fight. Elsewhere in my life I try and lengthen the distance between an impulse and a response, but here I try to act. Examples being when I feel compelled to go and pray with someone kneeling in a pew, or to send a text to someone in particular, or, in this case, making a seat for the Lord.
So, while keeping my eyes on the road, I carefully move my satchel to the backseat, pause my podcast and wait, and in no time I feel the presence of the Lord fill the cab of my truck.
Now this is not at all to say that our God needs physical space to be near to you. What I believe this is, and it has happened semi-regularly, is a microcosmic example of a reality of my walk with the Lord: our great and mighty God, King and constructor of all that is, was and will be, speaks very softly. And the things of the earth, being nearer to you physically, are much louder and more obtrusive. So in this way, in literally making a seat for the Spirit to accompany me on my way to work, I am tuning in to the frequency that He speaks.
This is the same truth Jesus talks about in Luke’s version of the Parable of the Sower. A farmer goes out to sow his seeds and casts them here and there, and the seed faces different obstacles in different places. Jesus describes the many kinds of people who hear the gospel, and the way they go on from there. Of one kind in particular, he says:
“The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.” – Luke 8:14
It is not just the lure of sin or pride that can hold you back from the Kingdom. It can also be the otherwise-benign joys of this world, or one of many morally neutral things that simply make enough noise to drown out the whispers of the Spirit. You have to make a space, maybe sometimes physically, for your Father to enter into your realm and commune with you. Don’t necessarily go and do exactly what I do on my morning commute, but find a time where you can make some space, invite the Lord into your presence, and listen.