On opposite sides of my office door there are two very different, but equally meaningful pictures. On the left Is a picture of the labyrinth on the floor of the Chartes Cathedral. “Solvitur Ambulando”… “It is solved by walking” has been a meditative prayer for me for years. This picture reminds me to take the time to walk to the center…the center of pastoral concerns, the center of potential conflict, the center of a message or sermon, the center of my relationship with God and others, and the center of myself.
Though the path is winding, there is only one way in and one way out, and God keeps meeting me in the center. God keeps showing up, and I continue to be in awe that God cares. I wrestle with a deadly grip of worthlessness. Maybe you’ve felt the same? No matter how much I produce or write or build or counsel, it never seems enough. I don’t know why I sometimes ask what things would be like if I wasn’t here, but I do know that when I walk to to center of things, God is amazingly present, beyond reason or rationality, to remind me that I am loved and many friends and family surround me with grace.
It is solved by walking…
Then there is the other picture. The Horizons Pavilion at Epcot was one of my favorite attractions growing up. To see the potential of human innovation, drive, and invention is inspiring. The theme song that played throughout the attraction, “If you can dream it, then you can do it,” has equally been a prayerful mantra of mine.
You can never catch the horizon, just like you can never exhaust knowledge or love, but there is a tension. The horizon doesn’t really exist. You can see the line where heaven meets the earth, but the only reason your eyes lie to you is because your perspective Is too small. When you broaden your vision, what looked like a barrier melts away.
But the tension again continues. I can go so far as the moon and still see only one side of the Earth. The tension Is only relieved when we look at our lives as being bigger than a singular moment. I can see the other side of the Earth, just not at the same time. Not all at once. That’s what time is. It’s God’s way of making sure not everything happens at once.
So, right now is important, but so is all of our “right nows” woven together by God’s grace into a single story that calls us to walk to the inward center, and to journey to the edge of what’s out there. What we will discover Is that God Is amazingly and inexplicably In both places reminding us that we have eternal value.
I pray that your 2022 will be a “centered horizon.” God loves you