In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:17-18.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 NKJV.

This morning in our Friday Zoom Retreat we did a Labyrinth Prayer. A labyrinth space is a meandering one-way pathway that leads inward and outward to a clear center and then meanders back outward again. Not a maze. They can be physical spaces or in our case this morning, on a flat drawing on our Zoom monitor. As I placed my finger on the starting opened area, and followed the one open path bound on all sides by narrow lines of equal distance, I found on the downward passages, I couldn’t see where my finger was and felt as though my finger jumped to the next adjoining space which was a little disorienting. I kept telling my finger to stay in the narrow open space. As I did the exercise, I was recalling the things we had shared before the labyrinth, the blessings and the prayer concerns. And then I realized that that is so much of what our individual experiences of life are. Within our own bodies is our own very personal journey: Experiencing anxiety, fear, joy, health, disease, love, friendship, companionship, separation. And overlapping our own private experiences are the experiences formed as we experience life with others. Our chapter, Acts 18, is exactly like that in the experiences Paul lived. And later in prayer, I realized that God’s Love is the path of Life and our experiences individually and together toward Him will be unique and different as we respond and react and live.

Paul is traveling and meeting and being impacted by many different people. After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” v. 1-6. We are meeting people in Acts and places in Acts that form the bases for the churches being established by Paul. It’s amazing to read these names and places! Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, “This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law.” But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or of vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.” And he drove them away from the judgment seat. v.8-16. Watching Open Table Conference discussing 1 Corinthians 6 where Paul dealt with the brethren taking one another to court, I couldn’t help but wonder if Paul thought of this time. We should be representing God in our lives. Our actions can do a disservice to God and for others trying to see what a difference living in faith in God can bring. And they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. v. 17. Paul keeps traveling with Priscilla and Aquila and goes to Ephesus, and to Caesarea, and Antioch, then through the Galatian region and Phrygia, v. 18-23. Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scripture that Jesus was the Christ. v. 19-28.

Sometimes it’s good to stop and think about every single life lived and how many of us there have been and are and yet will be. It’s staggering the number! Each life represents a wealth of experiences inwardly and outwardly. Each life on a path uniquely their own. And Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, began it all. He is the center holding everything together. And sometimes we feel His Presence and rejoice and sometimes we feel estranged and confused and disoriented. I thought about the disciples as I was on that labyrinth drawing. With Jesus they walked an open path He knew intimately. And then He was gone to be with the Father. Stay on the open path to the spacious center where God’s Love for us is real and eternal. Because in this world are so many disorienting and confusing events and we can be shaken and afraid and forget that Creator God IS. He brings us back to Him and the peace only He gives because He gives us Himself in His love for us. The open path of His Love.