Sunday, May 28, 2017

Being Centered

Being Centered
John 15:5
            A Quaker proverb says, “If you are very firmly attached at the center, you can dare to be free around the periphery.”  This is true in so many ways that we easily see the truth in these words.  The more rock-solid our center the freer we can be with the marginal aspects of life. 
            Imagine yourself trying to retrieve a dish from the topmost shelf of a kitchen cabinet.  You’re standing on a stepstool, but you can’t quite reach the object you need.  You think, “If I pick up one foot and stretch as far as I can, I can get close enough.  But if I pick up one foot and stretch that far, will I lose my balance?”
            Now, imagine someone holding on to the leg that remains on the stepstool.  The person doesn’t have to be very strong.  He or she only has to provide you with enough balance so you can feel free to lift that other foot, stretch yourself out, and pick up that dish.
            Whew!
            We need to find the strong center in our emotional lives.  We must be emotionally stable before we can add another person to the equation.  It’s easy to have casual relationships with other people, but to form lasting attachments we first have to know who we are.  Otherwise we can’t give of ourselves to anyone else.
            We need to find the strong center in our intellectual lives.  I encounter this every semester in the ethics class I teach.  Some students only know what they’ve been told all their lives.  They believe it, but can’t tell you why.  Other students know they are searching for a belief system, but have no idea what it might be.  These students don’t have the intellectual freedom to explore other possibilities because their center isn’t strong enough.  They may have strong convictions, but they haven’t really absorbed them enough to understand why they believe what they profess to believe.
            Most importantly, we need to find the strong center in our spiritual lives.  If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve had exposure to some system of religious belief.  You may or may not be committed to that system, but at least you have been taught some basic principles.  Perhaps you have already figured out that what you have been taught has not been completely absorbed.  Perhaps you feel you know what you believe, but not why you believe it.  Perhaps you are looking for something—or someone—to believe in.  How can you develop that strong center?
            Last Sunday the congregation at my church sang the hymn, Come and Find the Quiet Center.  The first verse says,
                                Come and find the quiet center in the crowded life we lead,
                        find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed:
                        clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes that we can see
                        all the things that really matter, be at peace and simply be.

            Jesus understood the need for a quiet, strong center.  This is why he frequently went off by himself to pray.  He had to renew his strength through intimate contact with his Father.  In his final speech to his disciples he put it this way: “I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
            No branch, separated from the main stem, can stay alive very long.  It will quickly wither, die, and be of no further use. 

            The paradox is that we encounter God at the margins—the periphery—but God must also be at the center.  If we are connected with God at the center, we can follow God to the periphery, where we will be free to explore all the avenues of service that will open for us.

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