Meditation on "Who do You Trust?" #3

Who Do You Trust? #3

It’s Wednesday and it’s a good day to start moving.

There is a difference between a maze and a labyrinth. A maze is built to have lots of stops and blind alleys. Try it out at http://games.yahoo.com/games/kidsmz.html The challenge is finding the way through, because there are many alternatives, but there is only one way through. A maze is designed to be frustrating. A maze has its own value, though. It teaches us that we must be self-reflective and have a good memory if we’re going to find our way through the puzzle. We must be self-reflective, because we experience a variety of emotions when the way is not simple. Self-reflective people wonder how to cope with conflict, mixed messages, and being lost.

A labyrinth, on the other hand, has only one way through from the outside to the center. Though the pathway is circular and goes back and forth, there is no issue of deciding which way is the right way. If a person stays on the path, there is no way to get lost. If a person will trust the path, that person will find the center. This center can be understood as a person’s spiritual center, or the place where we connect with God. (On Tuesday, Sept. 25, there will be a maze in MBSC at the fireplace lounge, bring friend and come to experiement!)

On October 13, a dozen or so of us will go to an area campground and walk a maze in a cornfield and a labyrinth in a meadow. We will build leadership skills by working through this kind of complexity as a group. (We’ll also climb trees a’la rock climbing) You are invited to join us. Look for more information later.

So is the way to God complex or simple? Is the way to God for you a series of switchbacks and difficult and competing solutions and possibilities? Or is the path to God as simple as getting on the right path and staying on it?

Both possibilities are reflected in scripture. Moses, for example, stopped in front of a burning bush and received clear direction there. What could be simpler? God is sending Moses to bring the suffering people out of Egypt. That’s the job. Jesus, on the other hand, spent his entire adult life praying, searching, leading and finally dying in the service of a way of life. The liberation of the people was not physical, but spiritual. On the surface, it looks simple; underneath, it’s clearly complex. (Have you ever tried to lead a group of twelve?)

Rather than tell you which is the true path, let me say simply that both approaches have value and both approaches, when used as the only approach, fall short of making us any more faithful. In the end, we must find ways to be faithful and simple, and we must be self-reflective and not fall for the “there’s only one way, and by the way that’s my way” attitude.

The important thing today and every day, is to take a step and get moving. We are called to make a decision to trust that calls us out of our self-centeredness and into God-centeredness.


Exodus 3
1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”