Walking A Sacred Path
Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Path
by The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress
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Discernment, pg. 167
One of the most important areas of discernment is the ability to distinguish a true experience of the divine. Magical
thinking is one of the biggest pitfalls of spiritual development. Sorting
out how the Divine works in our lives is an important spiritual task.
If we perceive God as a rescuing God, then we may be naïve in our beliefs and the way we function in the world.
One woman came to walk the labyrinth at the Mansion House in Dublin, Ireland. The labyrinth was open to the public, so we had no control over pickpockets. We could only warn people to keep their valuables with them. This woman felt invulnerable. She felt it was her special time to walk the labyrinth. But when she returned to her coat, her entire week's salary had been stolen. She was dismayed. As she talked with the sponsor of the workshop, she realized that she had felt protected when she wasn't at all. She was caught up in her newfound spiritual flow, in a habit of magical thinking. The woman assumed that God would take care of her earthly concerns, including her safety and finances. In the end she was grateful that a week’s salary was all she had lost.
As we mentioned earlier, all revelation is about struggle and insight into the process of the unfolding Spirit. It is not about results. Only the Spirit of God, working in our lives, produces results. Jesus said: "By their fruits you shall know them." The gift
of life is given to everyone. We all belong to God; this realization sets the movement of the Spirit in motion. When our gifts are grounded in the physical
plane, they take root and flourish--through books, music, or art. The gifts of others take root and contribute to our families or communities
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Excerpts from Walking A Sacred Path ©1995 by Dr. Lauren Artress used with permission from the author. To purchase a copy of Walking a Sacred Path, visit the non-profit bookstore Sacred Path Books & Art. This link is provided as a service to explorefaith.org visitors and registered users.
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