A few of us may remember back when
the most popular show on TV was The Waltons, a show
about the struggles and the joys of a mountain
family trying to get through the depression era.
There is one scene where John Boy is reminded by his
father to “remember who you are; remember your
brothers and sisters are watching you.” It is a
moment when John Boy is reminded to stay centered,
to stay grounded.
Most of us have heard someone point out the need to
be grounded or centered. Most people don’t question
what this means, but somehow we all seem to know.
Just telling someone to come back to center can have
a tremendous calming effect.
Imagine a tightrope walker, walking along a
tightrope. How important is it that he stays
centered in his mind and balance? Extremely. Life or
death! Right? He uses a long pole to help his
balance. The
pole tips to one side, and he along with it. Things
are tense for a while, but somehow he manages to
recover. He focuses on returning to center. Staying
centered is imperative.
Same thing with a bicycle or skis. You have to find
your center of gravity and find your comfort within
that center. The problem for many people is they
have never discovered that core center in the first
place. We live in a world that pulls us from extreme
side to extreme side and there are many who have the
wrong center.
Back in the late 70’s, there was a toy that was
heavily commercialized with this jingle, “Weebles
wobble but they don’t fall down.” It didn’t matter
how much we tried to knock them down, they
bounced right back up. They have such a positive
center they effortlessly go right back to it.
Being centered means having a reference point, a
place to come back to when life and emotions and
stress push you off balance.It doesn’t mean we are
always there. It means we always know where to go
back to, kind of like knowing where your home is.
People who lose their center or
are not familiar with their center can find
themselves all over the map without a clear heading.
Coming back to center can help us get back to what
we have temporarily lost.
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“We are hard pressed, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted,
but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed”
(I Corinthians 4:8).
When you’re centered, you’re not easily influenced
away from your purpose or goals. Those who are
grounded allow life’s small mishaps to roll off
their shoulders. For example, if someone cuts them
off in traffic, they may give a shoulder shrug, and
think, "Oh, well, they must be in a hurry." Chances
are, they won’t become overwhelmed by, or reactive
to, the incident.
Even if people see you as a grounded person, there
may be times when you feel “out of sorts,” or
stressed. However, there are different types of
exercises you can do to help you return back to
center, including: breathing exercises, counting to
ten, or in our case, time spent in prayer and
meditating on the Word.
God was also concerned about us staying centered. In
the Book of Galatians, Paul reminds the churches to
stay centered in Christ through the gospel and in
our relationships. Throughout the
book, he continuously calls us back to center in
order to fight off the temptation to lose our faith
and freedom in Christ.
"Centered" is what we’re calling our summer sermon
series on the Book of Galatians. Pauls' letter is a
call to center our lives on Jesus and the freedom we
now have through in His grace. The good news of
God's rescue through Jesus should be the center of
who we are and how we live. There is tremendous
freedom and joy when we have our lives centered
correctly.
Upcoming Sermon Series:
Jun 9 God Centered Gal 1:1–24
Jun 16 Unity Centered Gal 2:1–10
Jun 23 Community Centered Gal 2:11–21
Jun 30 Christ Centered Gal 3:1–14
Ron Otto, Preaching Minister at Lincoln Christian
Church
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