Gallery Wednesday - Judges 3

Hanging on for Dear Life

Do you ever feel that way - like you're hanging on for dear life?

I just finished reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert and there's an analogy she shares that describes this feeling perfectly:

"Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine. You want to stay near the core of the thing - right in the hub of the wheel - not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you can get frayed and crazy. The hub is calmness - that's your heart. That's where God lives within you." - "Eat, Pray, Love", Elizabeth Gilbert

The imagery was so poignant for me I drew the picture above in my journal with the quote. It wasn't until I decided to include it here on the blog for Gallery Wednesday that I saw it was another cycle.

There are times in our lives when we're closer to God than others (that's my little meditating stick figure next to the heart). This is often described as being at peace or having a sense of peace. But we're constantly moving in and out of this cycle, sometimes closer and other times farther away. I know when I'm farther away, I feel more like the little stick figure hanging on to the outer ring. Everything seems harder and I feel more scared. Look at all that emptiness around the poor stick figure hanging on! There's nothing else to grab onto.


I also enjoyed finding a little math applied philosophy in my sketch. If I have to get to another point on the ring, I have to travel a lot faster and a lot further on the outer rings than when I'm closer. The closer I am to God, the easier the pace, the shorter the distances.

This also reminds me of my labyrinth!

Even if you're closer to the center and there's chaos going on around you, you still feel calmer than when you're on the edge. Gideon seemed more frazzled hiding in a winepress to thrash wheat (Judges 6:11) than when he was at the edge of the enemies camp armed with nothing but trumpets, jars, and torches (Judges 7:17-18).