Whatever is at the center of your life is your god. When you committed your life to Christ, he moved into the center, but you must keep him there…Paul says, “I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts” (Ephesians 3:17)…When God’s at the center, you worship. When he’s not, you worry. Worry is the warning light that God has been shoved to the sideline. -“The Purpose Drive Life” by Rick Warren.
There comes a time for each of us in our day, week, year, life where we need to center. Call it stepping back, taking a breath, asking ‘Why’, reflecting, re-prioritizing, or signing up for a make-over.
I’m working on my center. I left the alluring, cold attractions of Minnesota to take a breath of the balmy nap-inducing heat of Belize. Accompanied by my kids and mom, we are adventuring for the next month.
Already I am captivated, connected to my Peace Corps days in Honduras. There are many similarities…many reminders. The air is stifling at noon and soft at night. The lights are too dim for reading, even though I try to read at night anyway. The bugs bite without warning, annoying that they are too tiny to see. The food is homemade and satisfying. I can’t drink enough water and I love that. The streets are dusty and I wear flip-flops in the house. The people are friendly and generous, holding back their laughs at my foreignness, because they know I’m just trying to fit in. The internet is sketchy, which teaches me I don’t always get things my way right away. I'm in a place filled with lesson after lesson if I’m willing to learn.
Whether I’m in Belize (goal to work on second book-writing project) or in Minnesota (goal pretty much the same), I pray that God is at the center. I pray that God is my God. I pray that he is at the center of my life.
