As a Christian, I know that God is in my life. What I didn't realize, is where He is in my life.
Consider any major storm system like a hurricane for instance. The wind speeds, the rain, the destruction seems to be everywhere. This is kind of like my life. It seems there is always something to endure or fight against just to stay where I should be and not be destroyed. This can be very exciting or disappointing, thrilling or scary. Then there comes a point where I just can't stand the fight anymore and want to give up. Is there any relief from this storm we call life? There is a bit of information that I am leaving out. I have always known this, but never considered this. In the center of the hurricane is what is called the eye. The storm/hurricane works kind of like a wheel, if you are on the outer edge of the wheel, far from the center, you are moving very fast when the wheel is turning (not a good place to be). But if you are in the center of the wheel or the hurricane, there is almost no movement even when it is turning very fast and causing much destruction. It is hard to imagine that there is a spot in the center of a very destructive hurricane that is calm, but there always is.
God is always at the center of our life. The problem is that we do not always live at the center. We wonder off to the edge. Sometimes as far from God as we can get, out on the edge where the storm is the worst. We have made the mistake of thinking in the terms of God-centered or self-centered. As Christians, we are God-centered. The center is where the life is. When we move away from the realization of God as our center, we do not live in the fullness of life. It does not change God's location we just choose to live off-center. There is no calm off-center. Everything of God is in the center—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
So how do we go off-center? It starts when we say “let me try to do it myself.” Maybe we find some good principles to start using to “keep us close to God.” Then we look at these principles as what works to keep us close to God, so we look for more principles to live by. We add a few good disciplines to keep us in line with these principles and before long we have a life full of self imposed rules. Our focus has become what we do instead of who we are and where we are. These rules or principles are hard to do because “who is perfect?” but we continue trying to follow all of the principles and rules that have led us off-center. Yes, we are off-center when we are looking to something other than God for our righteousness. Strangely, things seem to get tough, life gets hard. We are now attempting to live in the destructive part of the storm.
It’s now time to find some peace. Where do we find it? God is in the center. We should be in the center or in God. This does not change anything that is happening in the storm, but it changes where we are in the storm. The storm still looks destructive from the center, but it is strangely calm when we are in God. When we remain in God, who is in the center of our life, we can see the storm of life from a very calm perspective.
These comments are not reflective of the views of Answers in Genesis or its affiliates.