Dead. Weight.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened…
~ Matthew 11:28
Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…
~ Luke 10:41
Let us throw off everything that hinders… and let us run.
~ Hebrews 12:1
On our SOUL-2 retreat last weekend, we did one of my favorite things: We walked the prayer labyrinth. I write and teach regularly about this ancient practice (that goes back to 1201 at least in Chartres, France) because it is so emblematic of the spiritual journey and offers a uniquely fresh way to encounter God.
As our group stood around the 11 circuits of the original pattern, I invited them to pick up an object somewhere in reach—a small symbol they could carry on the walk into the labyrinth to represent that which they need to let go of and release at the center. I wonder—if you were still for a moment and got in touch with your heart—what would be the “dead weight” that you are carrying in your journey right now? What would God welcome you to lay aside in order to move forward more freely and lightly?
I wrote an extended set of blogs several years ago about this life-orienting passage in Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus beckons us toward a way of life he describes as “freely and lightly” (in the Message version). This is actually my “life verse”: No other passage speaks as profoundly and restoratively to my soul as this one. Do you, perhaps, feel weary today? Soul-tired? Weighed down?
As I stepped onto the labyrinth path, I picked up an old weathered piece of stick (photo above) to carry, and on the maybe 15-minute meditative walk toward the center of the labyrinth, I asked God, What is it, Lord? What’s the needless baggage, the dead weight, I’m carrying in life right now? In this gentle unhurried inquiry, I raised one thing at a time before my heart’s eye: Is this what is meant to lighten my load? No… no… no… I was ten minutes into the walk and still nothing.
I wasn’t trying to force it. I know that an open, secure, Godward question like this is bound to lead my heart toward freedom. And then, suddenly, there it was. The thing showed itself—what I have been dragging like an anchor, mostly subconsciously. It genuinely was a dead stick in my hand that I laid with sacred relief on the altar at the labyrinth center: an empty relic of its past glory, no longer of service.
If you look closely at the stick in the photo, there are a couple little sprigs of green at the end. On first glance, it might appear that the stick has a bit of life left in it after all, but that is an illusion. Turning the stick over, the tiny bundle of needles is simply stuck with a bit of resin. Nothing is actually living here. It clings tenaciously, as if to will itself back to life, but the breath has long since left.
There is nothing God is more interested in than our freedom… because it’s our lack of freedom that constrains the glory of God from shining through us! “Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.” The Spirit invites us constantly—on the labyrinth and off—to let go of dead weight. If there is a way forward that feels lighter and freer, it’s probably the path we are meant to be on. “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.” Amen.
growing your soul
Can you name that dead thing you’ve been carrying around that is no longer serving you?
serving our world
Your freedom is, by extension, freedom for the world around you.
takeaway
Throw off every hindrance.
