Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1992

Wise or Otherwise
A. Gardiner Skelley

At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing down amidst the grime and cobwebs of the furnace room. After all he was the senior minister of an influential city congregation and he did have an elegant vestry elsewhere in the building. So why was he perched on a hard wooden chair in the furnace room? It was Sunday morning, the hour of worship was approaching inexorably and 1, at the tender age of twenty-one, had recently come to be his assistant.

Architecturally the church edifice was an absolute gem. Built by the generosity of one single merchant prince, it was the ecclesiastical showpiece of Presbyterianism in the city of Dublin. Standing on an elevated site on the corner of an historic square, the slender spire trimmed in Portland stone caught the morning sun as it soared heavenward. Inside the sanctuary the high vaulted roof seemed, mysteriously, to draw the human spirit aloft on the very wings of worship. Yet here was the esteemed senior minister, ensconced on a beechwood chair down in the very bowels of the building. What in the world was he doing here?

The answer is perfectly simple. He was seeking a place where he could be alone and quiet; where he could compose his spirit and offer himself and his sermon and service to God, and the furnace room was the only place where he could find the solitude he needed! You see, in the vestry he would be distracted by the inconsequential chatter of the assistant and the formidable session clerk - not to mention the interruptions of those last-minute-souls delivering their belated announcements. And instead of telling us to go, this gracious saint of God went himself - to the furnace room. It is little wonder that he has remained an inspirational role model for me throughout the years.

All of this came back to me recently in the context of my devotional reading. I had returned once more to Richard Foster's excellent book, "Celebration of Discipline". A Quaker scholar and specialist in spirituality, Foster speaks for the need to develop "a quiet place designed for silence and solitude". Suddenly I was remembering the furnace room in Abbey Church. Foster adds this suggestive tid-bit; "I know a family which has a special chair, when anyone sits in it he or she is saying,'Please don't bother me, I want to be alone.' "

That seems to me to be a very valuable and practical suggestion, to have not just a special time but also to have a special PLACE for private prayer. It may be a quiet corner in the kitchen or the barn. Or a bedroom where the morning sun floods in with cheer and warmth. Or an outdoor garden nook, in summer time, very near to the heart of God. Or a pausing place by the shimmering waters of a northern lake where, in the stillness, the fringe of heaven seems to brush the sandy shores of earth. Or a book-lined study where, from the crowded shelves, the great spirits of the ages speak to our spirits. It may be at a desk or a bench or a table or in an open field where, while the hands are busy the thoughts are free to soar.

Foster is right, to have an appointed place for the discipline of prayer can be highly beneficial but at the same time we need to bear in mind that God is not limited spacially. He is always accessible to us, as close as our most urgent cry. He is available not just in the hallowed beauty of the sanctuary, but also in the heat and dust of the furnace room.

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