Quiet Space

“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”(Mark 1:35)

Space

Landscape photography often makes use of a technique called “negative space” in an image in order to draw attention to the subject of the photo. This space around the primary subject has the effect of quieting distractions and allowing the viewer to focus. Sometimes the term “breathing room” is used, and the space can be created by a lack of items in the photo or an obscuration such as fog or through use of aperture to blur the background.

The image above would not normally be very interesting if it was not isolated, but the isolation enables even an ordinary buoy to be interesting to the eye on a gray and rainy day such as this. It becomes a pop of color in a dull gray photo that draws the eye and fosters the imagination to fill in what cannot be seen in the background of the photo.

Quiet Life

Often our lives have so much busyness and chaos that we end up crowding out any ability to take time to think, breathe, and pray. Just as the verse above demonstrates, even Jesus took time to find isolation and breathing room from distractions to pray. Notice some details here… it was early in the morning, dark, and desolate. I think that these extra details show us that what the Lord was doing took discipline and was done with purpose and planning. This was more than just an incidental prayer of convenience as He went about life but was done with intention.

Very often for me an early morning spent with a camera is not necessarily about the camera as it is about creating purposeful space to think and pray. At various times in life this quiet withdrawal for me has taken the form of running, biking, hiking, and photography but the constant has always been an opportunity to create the refreshing time of withdrawal to hear God’s still small voice.

How about you? Are you finding ways to create space in your life for quiet withdrawal to renew your strength so that you are ready to better serve those in your life?

I hope these thoughts today have been an encouragement to you in your own walk and that you do enjoy taking these little photo journeys with me along the way! Praying for you wherever you are whether you are someone I know or may someday be able to meet. God Bless and don’t forget to take some photos along the way in your own journey.

Ken
Psalm 8:3-9