Praying to Know The True Center Of The Universe

Center of The Universe

There are a number of second hand shops in my neighborhood – operating for the benefit of the hospital and the SPCA and The Salvation Army etc.  I enjoy a look around every now and then. Even though I’m not one of those who needs to visit every antique shop or summer garage sale I appreciate many things that are timeless and whose value seems to increase as time goes along. 

The following quote was written about 100 years ago but it rings so true to me in our time:

“The soul which is the centre of its own circumference is doomed to realize that there are more forfeits than prizes, more bitterness than success, more dark hours than bright ones.”

That was part of a little devotional app I read written by a guy named F. B. Meyer who lived from 1847-1929.  He was a minister and worked in inner city work in England and America during his lifetime.  Maybe that’s where I sense a kindred spirit.

At what point in his life this particular bit was written I don’t know but whether it is something that the rich crave with power, prestige, and possession, or the poor crave to get high so they can forget the suffering in and around them, when our own experience is our central focus then I really see what F. B. Meyer is saying.

Jesus promised His followers that whatever they turned their focus away from in order to focus on Him, they would find satisfaction 100 times more than anything else could give them in this life.

Jesus replied, “I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. Mark 10:29-30

Jesus said the same thing from another angle when He said:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?  Mark 8:34-37

Loving God, You have the words of life we need even if they seem to cut across our convenience and our self-centeredness in so many obvious and  not so obvious ways.

Help us to not waste our focus and time on things that will ultimately lead to suffering and heaviness but to take You at Your word and listen for how You want us to live so we can be fulfilled and satisfied. 

Give us grace to let go of worthless things and to hold tightly to those truths that give us a steady place to stand and face whatever the day bring.

Thank you for those like F. B. Meyer who remind us of timeless truths.  Amen