Centering

When making (or "throwing") a pot on a wheel, the first thing you have to do is center the clay.   

Centering is a very unglamorous thing.  You take a lump of clay (mud, really)... work it hard (you end up throwing your weight into it)... and finally, you end up with... a lump of clay.  All that work for what seems to be for nothing.  UNTIL... you start to pull up the sides of that clay to create your pot (or plate, or pitcher, or bowl).  When you really start the creating process, you quickly learn the importance of that unglamorous centering.  Why?  If you don't center well (meaning:  get the lump of clay dead center on the wheel), then your pot will be wobbly... or collapse entirely.

This fall at The Loop we've launched our first Leadership Huddle.  It full of people who are willing to learn to listen to God & do what He says... and then train others to do the same.

I've talked alot about centering with this group.  Why?  Because right now what we're learning is the "centering" of the spiritual life:  Leaning to listen to God, and then do what He says.  Our group is struggling to learn how to do this.  Yes, we're all reading along in the same passages of the Bible (2 Corinthians right now). But reading is not "hearing God." 

As we learn to "listen" some are waiting for the clouds to part and a voice to come from heaven.  Some are looking for a mystical experience.  Some are substituting studying for listening.  For much of the group the exercise is frustrating.  And perhaps... feels a bit like working with the same lump of clay over and over.

But once the "clay" of our spiritual life is centered on learning to listen to God and do what He says?  Then we can create things of beauty...