Teardrops on the Floor

Elevators are sacred spaces. For the last nine months I have been volunteering as a chaplain at a hospital in Philadelphia. Part of being a chaplain is recognizing sacred spaces when you walk into them. Its not always easy, and often I have to rely on the leading of the Holly Spirit, but sometimes you can just tell. As I stepped onto the elevator today, I again noticed a clear sign of a sacred space. There were teardrops on the floor.

One thing that anyone who works in a hospital will tell you, is that hospitals can often be cold places. People come to hospitals because they are sick. They hear a lot of technical language that they may not understand. The staff see many patients and have to keep working even if the illness of a patient affects them. Families are often forced to grieve in unfamiliar places. What this all means is that sacred spaces -- those spaces where we are fee to express sadness, grief, loss, contentment, or even joy -- are fleeting and often not automatically present in a hospital. Those spaces must be made and then protected. This is part of the job of a chaplain. We facilitate sacred spaces and we protect the sacred spaces made by patients, staff, and families.

Sacred Space

Sacred space was not a term I had heard or used much before becoming a chaplain. Nine months ago I probably would have told you that a sacred space was a house of worship. There is still truth to that. Houses of worship are sacred spaces. We often will worship God in our sacred spaces. But one does not require the other.

Make no mistake. You do not stumble into a sacred space. You are invited.

On almost the first day as a chaplain I began hearing this term. Other chaplains would talk about conversations that they had and refer to that time as sacred space. What I began to understand was that they were not talking about a physical location (although certain locations make it easier to have a sacred space), but they were referring to an atmosphere that would happen when they had conversations.

Not all conversations a chaplain has are sacred spaces. Many are, but not all. Sacred spaces are times or places that allow us to be honest with ourselves, with others, and with our God. A sacred space can happen in an instant. It can be a single phrase. Or it can be an entire conversation. Sacred spaces can be defined locations (like houses of worship) or they can be the atmosphere that follows us as we relate to others and God.

Sacred spaces can happen anywhere, but in hospitals they are a necessity. So many people in hospitals feel the need to put up a front for others. This can be patients for their families, families for their loved ones who are sick, or staff for each other and the patients they serve. I can say that I have felt this need as a chaplain. I have felt like I had to pretend for the staff or the patients that I have seen. But what I have come to realize is that healing does not come when we put up a front. Often healing comes from being honest. It comes when we let down those barriers and allow others, or even ourselves, to see what we really feel. When that happens you have entered a sacred space.

Given the nature of sacred spaces, it becomes important to guard and protect them. When someone invites you into their sacred space (Make no mistake. You do not stumble into a sacred space. You are invited.) they trust you with their true self. That trust must be protected. If you break that trust you have not only violated the sacred space, but you have violated that person.

Elevators are Sacred Spaces

Because of the deeply personal nature of sacred spaces, they often happen around strangers. As a chaplain I hear things that people will not tell their own clergy or family. There is some safety in the fact that I am not a regular structure in their life. The anonymity makes people able to be honest. This also means that sacred spaces can happen when people are alone.

Their liquid prayers remain on the floor, a testament to the fact that an encounter with the sacred occurred.

Elevators provide brief moments of silence and isolation. That brief moment between when those doors close to when they open on a new floor, provides the space for people to be themselves. The walls fall down. The pretending is over, if just for an instant. In that time, in that space, people allow themselves to be honest. There is no need to be strong for someone who is not there. There are not people watching you and expecting anything from you. And so in that moment people create sacred space.

They create a moment where nothing else matters. This is the brief moment when people allow themselves to cry. This is the time when all the unspoken prayers -- when all the grief, sadness, and loss comes out. This is time when liquid prayers fill their eyes and fall silently on the the floor. When they leave that elevator they may not take that sacred space with them. But they have left behind the evidence of it. Their liquid prayers remain on the floor, a testament to the fact that an encounter with the sacred occurred.

May you come to recognize the sacred spaces in your life. May you be invited into the sacred spaces of others. May you protect those sacred spaces. And may God meet you there.

Amen!