Inner Stairwell

A few years ago, our home church underwent a building renovation. One of the best outcomes of that project is a stairwell with some mighty fine acoustics.

I’m sure that in all the meetings on the project – no one ever gave much thought to the stairwell. After all, it’s just a stairwell. It connects two floors. It’s up to code. It does its job. But to VIP, it’s something more.

The VIPs regularly ask to sing there and when we do, it’s pretty special. The sound is amplified and it rolls around in a way that it doesn’t in most other spaces. We’re suddenly able to hear one another, loud and clear, which enables us to tune more easily with one another.

In rehearsal last night, I was reminding the kids to open up and sing out with a little more intention. One singer said, “We need to find our inner stairwell.”

Our inner stairwell. What an interesting phrase. What IS it about that stairwell that makes it special? It seems built for singing. But is it the stairwell, or is it the way that we all approach it? We walk in, anticipating beauty. We enter that space, fully aware that what’s about to take place will be a blessing to each of us – and we all work a little bit harder to make it so.

That stairwell was never designed to be a singing space, but look how God has used it. Look how he takes this ordinary thing and makes it a place of beauty and blessing.

Now, what if we let him do the same for us? What if we’re all just ordinary things, waiting to be used for God’s glory? We know that it is God who works in each of us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13) What if we approached one another, willing to work towards beauty and blessing, trusting that God would help it to be so?

I'd call that finding your stairwell.