Seeking the Warm Center
a weekly devotional for spring
Thank you for joining us! Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:
Megan wrote in our Tea For Our Enemies thread:
“I may offer tea to this person but that tea often is served with bitterness and passive aggressiveness cloaked as something “good”. THEY likely have no idea, but the truth is my own opinions and judgements taint the tea I offer (& let’s be honest, I’m not offering it that often because frankly, I don’t want to) Tea has the power to heal, but the tea I’ve been offering isn’t particularly healing for this person. I’ll be pondering a long time what it would look like to set aside my own judgements and offer tea, unpoisoned by my own pride.”
Thank you for that amazing (and challenging) insight, Megan! Megan runs a fantastic website for Christians who identify as Highly Sensitive People (HSP) with resources and encouragement. Click here to check it out!
If you want to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!
Now, on with this week’s devotional…
walls of stone paths of soil turn inward return coil closer to the center then fold away to the edges distant cold how long must we linger on the outside before the path sweeps back inwards to the warm center where God resides?
Have you ever felt that God was distant? Or experienced that lonely sense that He has wandered away and forgotten you?
The path of life is not a straight line, and it’s not even a spiral. It’s more like a labyrinth, the classic maze of antiquity, full of switchbacks and turns that draw nearer and nearer to the center the longer you faithfully walk. For Christians, the center of the labyrinth is the place where God is. We orbit around Him, like planets around a warming, sustaining sun.
Some people today, of all faiths, choose to walk labyrinths as a meditation; you can find them worldwide in churchyards and contemplative spaces. When you walk the meditative labyrinth (click here to see the classic Chartres version), there are long stretches of time where the path is as far away from the center as it can get. But the center does not move. You do. You sweep inward and out. You twist around and around. You draw close to the center, and then away again like a dance. But the center never moves.
This is how it is with God.
God does not move. He is the warm center, the source of all good things. We draw close, and then we draw away. Like the seasons, we have times of warm summer and times of cold winter. Times of deep joy, and times of lonely pain.
But drawing away is not a detour; it’s part of the process. It’s part of living. On the edges of the labyrinth, we can feel cold and forsaken, but it is not so. God has not moved. We have.
With faith, even on the edges of the maze and as far away from God’s warmth as it may feel, we may remain on the path without fear, knowing that it will eventually loop back on itself and draw us closer and closer to the warm center of the labyrinth where God is. All that is required of us is to continue moving forward.
Where are you on life’s labyrinth right now? Do you feel God’s warmth like the sun on your face, or does it feel cold and lonely? And do you really believe that God never moves?
Did this piece resonate with you? Take a moment to share it!
If you enjoy this piece, please let me know by tapping the heart to like, comment with your thoughts, share with someone you think will enjoy it, and subscribe to get instant access to my future work right to your inbox. Blessings!
“God has not moved. We have” -- wow. Simple yet profound! Lots to think about it. I can’t help but think of the Tabernacle... and the innermost part where God dwells, which reflects Eden. We may be far from Eden but God dwells with us, Immanuel - God with us! and through Him we can absolutely walk towards that warm center. He never moved. Love this idea. (P.S. thanks for the shout out for Holy HSP! I really should add some new content! It’s been awhile!)