A Copernicus Moment
I want to take us this week to Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Paul, by now an older man, writes this lovely letter to his young prodigy Timothy who had helped him with ministry for some time. Paul was essentially training Timothy up to take over from him, and the letter has much to say about what it means to live life as a follower of Jesus and to put him at the centre of everything.
Let me ask you this today: What is at the centre of your life? Blaise Pascal once said: Jesus Christ is the centre of everything and the object of everything, and he who does not know him knows nothing of the order of nature and nothing of himself. Christ is the centre! Pascal rightly points out that Jesus Christ is the one around which everything else revolves!
Christ-Centered Living
A few years ago Bill Meaker taught me a song called ‘Jesus be the centre’. Listen to how it goes:
Jesus, be the centre
Be my source, be my light, Jesus
Jesus, be the centre
Be my hope, be my song, Jesus
Is this true for you, I wonder? Is Christ the centre of your life? Does everything else in your life revolve around your relationship with God?
I guess if we’re honest, we will recognise that we are usually self-centred rather than God-centred. Self-centred people evaluate everything in life by thinking “how will this affect me”?
For a self-centred person, their own comfort and security and glory is central. Life revolves around them! And today’s world is very much a self-centred world. Our western culture today says put yourself first! Celebrate yourself! Boost yourself! YOU are the centre! Now everywhere we go we encounter people who are thinking about themselves and only themselves.
But I like what Max Lucado wrote in his book What’s it All About. He said “What Copernicus did for the earth, God did for our souls!” You see, Copernicus was the scientist who discovered that the earth isn’t the centre of the universe. Before him, we all thought that the sun revolved around the earth. But he discovered that the earth isn’t the centre of the universe. Not by a long shot. He bumped earth off-centre!
God-Centered Lives
God does this for our souls – he bumps us off-centre, helping us to realise that it’s not all about us. It’s all centred on GOD!
We’ll see this week how Paul’s letter to Timothy contains this very message. But perhaps today, we can have a bit of a Copernicus moment ourselves. Let’s remove ourselves from the centre and put God in his rightful place in the centre of our lives every moment.
