Whitespace. It is the space on the page that is left unmarked.
At the beginning of January, I found myself staring at the pages of a blank journal. Much like the empty squares on a freshly hung calendar, the pages lay before me just waiting to be filled.
While I have over 150 journals, the pages of this journal stared back at me, beckoning me to contemplate the words that I would pen rather than rushing into writing down my prayers as was my habit.
But what was I going to write?
I’ve been through seasons of writing when I poured out my heart on paper, begged God through the ink on the pages to deliver, to save, to answer, and listed pages and pages of gratitude for the 1000 plus grace gifts He’s given me over the course of my life.
But this time, the feel of the pages, the grip of the pen, and the purpose of the journal felt different.
And then I remembered some questions that someone posed for reflection in preparation for the upcoming year (7 Questions to Pray Through in the New Year by @shelovesbible).
I quickly searched my saved posts and began to write them down in my journal, each question getting its own blank page.
- Am I closer to God now than I was a year ago?
- What is big prayer I can pray for in the new year?
- What is an aspect of God’s character I want to trust in deeper this year?
- Is there anyone I need to forgive or ask forgiveness from this past year?
- How have I not used my time wisely this year and how can I change?
- In what ways is my heart not fully surrendered to God?
- What are one or two goals I would love to see God help me with this year?
I stared at the whitespace under each question. And I began to answer each one, jotting down my responses in bullet form.
Little did I know that God was going to fill in the remaining whitespace on each page until the margins were overflowing with His truth, His answers, His plans and His purpose in ways that my mind and pen could not comprehend.
The writer of Ecclesiastes captures this beautiful mystery of longing:
“He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11, Amplified Bible
What about you? Are you longing for God to do something in you and through you, but perhaps you feel stuck and in need of starting place? I encourage you to grab a journal and a pen and answer the questions above.
And like me, I think you will quickly find…God longs to fill up the whitespace in ways you never expected.
