From the beginning of our lives, we are constantly bombarded with the concept of striving to be the best, to fight our way to the top. The idea of being in the middle of the heap is severely frowned upon. It carries the idea of being average. One definition of average is being at the bottom of the top and the top of the bottom. Who wants to be thought of as being average? We all want to be above average in something, whether at work, school, a favorite hobby or interest. However, there is one part of our lives where being in the middle is the best part, where we are meant to be. That is when we are in the center of our life.
Life is sometimes described as revolving around us, like a wheel. The middle, therefore, is the hub, where all of our life is focused. Think of it as a bicycle wheel with lots of spokes. We take one spoke out to the rim when we head off to school. We take another when we pursue our career. Perhaps we wander around the rim for a while and then take another spoke to get back to the center. Some of us head out to the rim and stay there for a while, taking multiple trips around the rim before finally finding a spoke to go back to the center. Some of us go out to rim and leap off, leaving all of what is familiar behind. While we are away, the wheel is still there, still spinning. If we are brave enough to try, we can jump back onto the rim, grab a spoke and return to our hub. Some never jump back on, seemingly lost forever.
Of course, we can also start our own wheel, build our own hub, attach the spokes and a rim and put the wheel into spin. That is what we do when we head out and build our own life, start a career, marry, have children. While the wheels are separate, they are also connected in such a way that we can move back and forth between them, traveling the spokes to the hubs of our lives, experiencing the different values and love.
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There is one part of the wheel that we can’t see, the part that helps it spin smoothly. Inside the hub, are the ball bearings, unseen but essential to the wheel’s smooth operation. That is what God is, the bearing race that helps us to live our lives smoothly, to keep us in the spin. It doesn’t matter how large we build the wheel, how many spokes we explore, or the number of trips we take around the rim, how many times we leap off or fall off, God is keeping our lives in motion. Unlike real bearings, God doesn’t wear out, He can’t be replaced. He is always there, out of sight, smoothing out the spin of our lives.
