10 Ways to Return to Your Center
Returning to your center.
It may seem like an abstract idea, but returning to your center is a phrase that speaks of returning to the presence of Jesus within you in the moment. It’s not a far-fetched, ethereal concept.
Walking with God is extremely practical.
If you want concepts only, Jesus and Christianity aren’t for you.
Returning to your center is simply a phrase I use that is a summons—a reminder if you will—back to God. No matter what is going on in my day or in the moment, returning to my center is a practice I use to become aware of God once again.
It’s the holy habit called abiding in Christ. (See John 15 for more.)
Abiding in Christ is a habit that is developed through practice. It’s the training and recognition of the God who is always with you.
The question is not Is God with me? The question is actually, Am I with Him?
The book of James speaks of drawing near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4v8). If you are a Christian, Jesus is aleady in you for you have become His Temple. So what does this drawing near mean?
It’s not a drawing near of proximity, but of intimacy.
So much of this life is geared and fashioned to disrupt your walk with God, to take you and me away from our center. The world, Satan, and our flesh do not want us to abide in Christ, because when we do we become more of who we were meant to be, which translates to being better husbands, wives, sons, daughters, students, and so on.
The list is endless. But one of the ways our center is disrupted is through digital distraction. Stop and think for a moment (or better yet, look at your Screen Time on your iPhone) how much you reach for your phone on an hourly basis. There’s no judgment here. I’m simply pointing out that there is an onslaught that is specific about severing us from our center—pruned, branch from Vine.
Returning to your abiding place can be practiced in many ways. Below are some examples of how I practice returning to my center:
Morning and Evening Prayer
Practicing gratitude throughout the day
Using my breathing as a framework for quick '“breath prayers”
Meditation on the Scripture
Designated times when I turn off my phone
Pausing what I’m doing when I sense I’ve lost touch with God
Reminders on my phone
Sabbath on Sunday
Praying in the Spirit
Community and Worship
These are just a few ways that I practice coming back to Jesus to abide in Him. As with everything else, abiding in Christ and returning to our center can only truly be done through a work of grace which is why humility is so important.
Returning to our center is really about stepping out of the busyness of life and into the kingdom of God to find God once again. If we hope to be strong believers in the coming days, we need a more deeply rooted life in Christ, one that is not relegated to Sundays only, but one where there’s an experience of diving love upon the hearts, and faces resplendent with God’s glory as we come down the mountain and step into life.
