Walking a labyrinth is referred to as a sacred experience. We consider ourselves fortunate to live where our front window looks out from our fourth floor level to our local Anglican church, St. Alban's. A year or two ago they made a labyrinth at the corner of their property. My wife and I walked it when it was first introduced to the public. Today I walked that for the third time. Actually, I have a confession to make. I walked circularly up to the center, then straight out. I don't know what purists would say that does to the experience. I still get something out of it.
On my three walks through the labyrinth, I have reflected on how the experience relates to life. More to the point, for me, as a Christian, how it relates to my walk in that faith. It also reminds me of Jesus' last resolute walk toward Jerusalem and his death. Our walks, our lives, are not likely to end like His, but we need to be resolute too. We have the advantage too of having Jesus walk with us, having covered the ground before.
Embarking on the walk is making a choice to leave everything else aside, at least for a short period of time. Of course, embarking on the Christian walk, is hopefully for life and eternity, but it also involves a choice of leaving certain things aside.
One does not have to walk very far in the labyrinth, before one has to take a turn. This is like life. Life is not a straight road. One soon finds that one cannot take the path too quickly either. There is the constant curve to the center, not to mention the 180° turns that occur at varied intervals. To begin with, they seem unpredictable. Indeed, life throws us many unpredictable turns.
One also has to walk slowly to keep one's balance on this curving and turning path. At least I do, at my age. That may see more than one thing about my age. Young people who have not perhaps experienced much of life yet, who are healthy, may sail through a labyrinth at a good clip. Perhaps when they're older, having been buffeted by more of life's experiences, they will travel more slowly as well.
Not keeping one's balance of course means falling, or nearly doing so. Again, life throws many situations into our walk where we are in danger of falling. For the Christian, of course, this means as well failing: failing to live up to our own expectations, perhaps failing to live up to our Master's. Sometimes our expectations differ from our Master's and even exceed what he might want from us at any point. So also then, walking the labyrinth properly, like going through life with discipline, can help one develop one's balance.
And one walks the path of the labyrinth, one also quickly becomes aware that there are many other segments of the pathway on either side and sometimes in front or behind of one. This leads to the question of choice. Does one take a shortcut and cut across two of each other paths. Unless one knows the labyrinth by heart, one might find that one is not taking a shortcut after all. How is this like life? Perhaps it is like when we try to go our own way. We are not really following the path that our Master has laid out for us. We may indeed shorten the path, but is that to our benefit? We are reducing the experience of the labyrinth, of life, that is in The Plan. If we make a choice where we end up lengthening our experience on the labyrinth, that may reflect real life choices where we make life more difficult for ourselves.
Sometimes the path has deceptively long stretches, and one might be tempted to pick up the pace. That could increase the risk of losing your balance or not navigating the turn properly that will inevitably come up. It might also rob one of the opportunity to think and learn, to become more stable. This is again like life. When things seem to be going well, when everything seems calmly to be going our way, there is a tendency to get careless and not keep a close enough eye on where you are going.
Then again, sometimes the stretches on the paths are short and one is turning frequently. Here one really has to be careful about keeping on the path and keeping one's balance. This is like the rougher stretches in life, where one has to be more careful. Indeed, sometimes they use short stretches and frequent turns can seem pointless. We have all had periods in life where we have gone through the valleys that the psalmist talks about, where life seems pointless, and God seems far beyond the hills to which we look above for help. We have all experienced times where the storms of life toss us backwards and forwards and we really wonder if we are on the path to our Master, our Center.
Through this all then, one learns that one has to keep one's eyes on the path. You really can't look around too much, or you could step off the path and lose your way. I don't have to explain how that is like life.
Finally, since the labyrinth, at least in this case, is circular, which I believe it always is, there is always that centripetal force to the center. We can compare this to our Spirit-guided attraction to our Center, who is Jesus Christ. The curvature of the labyrinth may make us feel that we are getting ever closer to the center, and indeed we are, and will get there if we are patient and follow the path, but it is not a direct route. Again, we all know that in life, our route to the Center is not simple or direct. Indeed, we must follow the path that the Master has laid out for us, once we have accepted The Call to enter this path. That makes our path no longer simply human but a divine plan. That will bring us to the Center at the time the Master has planned. Meanwhile, we need to always keep our eyes on the prize, as the old spiritual goes, "Keep your eyes on the prize, Hold on, Hold on."
If you walk the labyrinth, see what your experiences are. I don't think you can walk it without learning something, at least if you reflect on it at least somewhat.
That's the reflection from Lulu Island today.
