Charlotte, North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

We took a couple hours to wander around lovely downtown Charlotte on our way home from a family reunion in South Carolina.  I love collections of signs that show distances from where you're standing.  This one in the Green Park in downtown Charlotte is colorful and cute.  The brown sign near the bottom reads, "Charlotte - North Carolina - the center of the known world."  I love it!

    Of course, there's a spiritual application to that little phrase (of course there is!!).  Don't we all consider the spot where we're standing to be the center of the known world?  I mean, it's certainly the center of our known world.  It's the place we live and breathe.  No matter where we're standing or sitting in this moment, we'll be in the center of where we're supposed to be if we can live in the midst of this great truth:  "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" Ephesians 2:10.  Now, that's the center of the known world that I want to live in - to walk in the good works God created me for (:
      Speaking of "worlds" - here's an artistic rendering of the world by artist, Arnaldo Pomodoro (1974) that sits on Main Street in downtown Charlotte ---

     This is called "Grande Disco."  Here's what the artist wrote on the plaque I'm standing on:  "Our life today is one of crisis…of movement…of tension….  We do not know what our world will become.  I try to say something about this uncertainty in my work.  I try to communicate a sense of vitality and connection with the movement of life today… and to be a part of its movement."

     As you can see from my expression in the picture, I'm a bit puzzled - not quite seeing the meaning of what the artist said in the disc.  It is, however, an interesting and attractive piece of bronze artwork.

     While many people are uncertain about the world we live in today, as children of the great Creator of it all, we can live within a large circle of certainty.  We know where this world is going and we know our long-term future -- and we know that God loves us with an everlasting love that lends itself to feelings of peace and power and purpose in our little corner of the world. 
      I do agree with the artist in what he says about wanting to be a part of the "movement of life today."  I want to be in the center of God's will -- just as the verse in Ephesians tells us that we're created for a purpose -- an amazing purpose that is part of the "movement of life" in ways that are exciting and beyond what any of us could think or imagine.
     I love the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:7:  "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."
     If we are children of the king, I just love that wherever this "jar of clay" (your body) is standing that the priceless treasure of the Holy Spirit is there within you, ready to show His "all-surpassing power" - not just in the center of your known world, but in any corner of any part of His great universe.  And -- He wants to use that "all-surpassing power" through you!
     Oh, the wonder of it all!