Dear Fellow Travelers,
The spiritual journey is long and uncertain; it doesn't always feel regenerative. If we stop to be honest, don't we feel lost some of the time? Sometimes, don’t we feel stuck in a place that isn’t a place we wish to hang out while alive? This world is a fascinating, scary, and unpredictable place that may feel foreign at one moment and too familiar at the next. How do we make sense of—understand—our world?
Martin Buber said: "The world is not understandable; it is embraceable." In Christian translation, our aim is to hear the 'yes' of Christ in the complex weavings of our minds and hearts and in the world around us, and embrace it!
We are called to embrace life, not run it, manage it, control it, or even necessarily understand it beyond knowing that life is both mystery and gift. I am ultimately not the trailblazer or the pathfinder in this life; I am in better hands in that I seek to follow The One who is the trailblazer; and who was, is, and is to come! Contrary to the messages that bombard me, I am not the master of my own destiny, only the master of my own thoughts and feelings—the master of my attitude.
As of late, the attitude I am seeking to hold to, cling to, and even soar with is this: Show me Your Ways, O Lord. Teach me Your Paths. (Psalm 25:4)
Over the Christmas season, I purchased for myself a gift from Barnes & Nobles. It is a Labyrinth Meditation Box that includes colored pencils, meditative sessions, and a small stack of single sheet papers each with a unique labyrinth design in which one is to prepare with prayer and then color in the labyrinth only to reflect upon their creation afterwards. Why the purchase? It was an opportunity for me to engage in this spiritual journey differently—a way to open myself to hear God and be led by God along this life path—because familiarity may breed complacency, killing passion and vitality.
I should disclose, however, that this prayerful perspective in coloring is not a strong suit of mine; and thankfully the exercise isn’t to create art to sell, but rather to create a connection with Christ’s Spirit. Little did I know that drawing circles within circles would not just be a onetime activity. At the end of each session of prayerful drawing, I would be left with the feeling that I wasn’t quite getting it. I guess you could say, I felt like I was lost in a maze not sure where I was or if I would reach my endpoint. On more than one occasion I felt like turning back, packing it in, no longer drawing.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the act of coloring in labyrinths was very much mirrored in the meaning of maze. At first glance the simplicity is deceiving – how could something so symmetrical, so effortless in its appearance cause so much confusion, so much pondering of where to continue the line of the pencil? When I saw it this way, the frustration just added to the desire to carry on, to delve deeper into the circle, enter the journey just a little more, and see what emerges at the end.
It was evident for me to realize in a profound “DUH!” moment that the allure of taking on such a project, whether it’s the simple task of copying an image or entering a life-changing journey, is inherent in the maze.
The labyrinth is a design that feels divine. These circles that neatly tuck into each other, separate and come together are born of a mind that isn’t complicated by human frailty. A mind that is scheming and conniving just couldn’t, in its wildest dreams, conjure up something that embodies such unity of purpose. Of course, we humans have played with the idea of mandalas and mazes from the first stages of our existence. What makes them so lasting and the reason we resonate so deeply with them is that they are ultimately a pointer back to the one true Designer of the Universe, the One who designs our path and makes all parts intersect and work together. It is an act of worship, and at the center of it all the human hand that creates each design is merely a witness to the Creator.
The end result is far from perfect and I had to concede that somehow that was only right. When I look at my creative projects, I am reminded of a child’s drawing. Part of me thought I should hide and cover up those mistakes but I consciously didn’t. I realized that on my own, the maze I create, the journey of my own machinations, is always haphazard and shaky and turns that would’ve been wise to take I so often miss. I wanted my colorful creations to confess those parts of myself that don’t heed to God’s ways and the end result is usually a mess.
There are parts of the drawings I do love, especially the colors – the blues and the greens play together creating a planetary effect. I love that because God’s creation in all its earthiness has an aesthetic quality – we might not see it up-close but with the eye of God, there is much more beauty than we think. There are splotches here and there, rough edges and lines that squiggle, revealing an unsteady hand yet overall, don’t detract. But more than anything I am reminded by the desire of the Psalmist – “Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths” – because without the guidance of the Spirit, even the most beautiful painting is missing something.
I think that if I spent the rest of my life trying to master the maze I still wouldn’t get it, but maybe my part of the witness isn’t in the beauty of perspective and symmetry; maybe it is in discovering that I am lost without the Spirit. It is God in Christ who carves out our path and teaches us a new way, and what so often looks like an optical illusion or dead end at the outset ends up being a plan that makes sense in our souls. God, with infinite wisdom, compassion, and imagination is able to take our lives - which are topsy-turvey at best - and weave them into a larger mandala. Each turn, each life, is captured in a circle that points to the center.
May we, in claiming God as the Guide in our Life, discover that God seeks to lead us toward our passion as we journey through this embraceable mystery known as life!
(Portions by Bev Patterson - watershedonline.ca/articles/2009/Labyrinth.html)
