All In A Days Grace

  What do we know about a Labyrinth?   Sometimes we use the terms “Maze” and “Labyrinth synonymously, but there is a difference in the two. A maze has been described as a complex, branching, multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction , while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center.   So as adjectives the difference between  multicursal  and  unicursal  is that  multicursal  is having more than one possible route between the center and the outside, while  unicursal  is being composed entirely of a single continuous path or line. If we use the analogy of walking through a maze or labyrinth to talk about the way we move through life, we can learn a few things. When our lives are not focused on God they can become very much like a maze. We find ourselves moving through this multicursal place of multiple directions and dead ends. There is confusion and a great deal of moving backwards in strife. ...

Sometimes there are events in our lives that when we look back on them as adults we wonder…. ”How was that a good idea?” My memory brings me back to PE Class. At the time we called it Gym Class. There were various things that we would engage in during our time of physical activity, but amidst them was a dreaded moment that seemed to eclipse any or all of the fun. This was the “picking of teams”. Somehow, the adults of the time, thought it a good idea to have two kids be ‘captains’ who picked their team. Of course it was always the confident kids that quickly nominated themselves to the task. The gym teacher, simply wanting to move on with the activities, said fine….and so the “picking” began. Friends were always picked first and of course those with physical skills for the sport at hand. The first several picks were usually met by a great deal of enthusiasm and cheer. As the teams grew and the choices moved beyond friends or those with physical skills, the task seemed to take on a sort...

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”   “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”   Then he asked them,  “But who do you say I am?”   Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” -Matthew 16:13-16   For many of us, our faith began with our family. We were taught who Jesus was. We went to church with our parents. If we were involved in a church early on we took part in religious education where an instructor helped to teach us the fundamentals of our faith. Maybe we came to faith later in life, through a friend. Perhaps we were influenced by someone in our life that invited us to church or who spoke about Jesus in a way that intrigued us. In the text from Matthew 16 Jesus is asking his disciples who people say that He is. I can imagine them chiming in, ...