Lots on the Labyrinth

On September 20th, we had a "Walk and Talk" at the Regner Park Labyrinth. Mainly, we covered what's good about using a labyrinth as a spiritual discipline, why labyrinths can be controversial for Christian use, and some of the things to keep in mind when using a labyrinth or another form of prayer walking.

So what's good about it? First and foremost, labyrinths are a quiet form of prayer. Which means that you're forced to slow down, stop talking, and pay attention. That's not only the intention, but also the actual reality in many cases. Labyrinths are often done in community, or at the least, they're done with the option of others using the same space- when walking a labyrinth, you make the implied agreement that you won't talk with the other walkers and that you'll stay on the path in a respectful (and slow) manner. And because labyrinths have a set distance to walk, they're not a discipline that you can easily walk away from when things get tough or you get bored. If you do walk away, you're much more cognizant of it- it's a choice to stop the labyrinth, not just a gradual distraction. So this, in itself, forces you into focusing. Focused, quiet time set aside for communing with God is pretty much always a good thing!

But in addition to that, the labyrinth's set distance and it's winding shape are representative of human life. When you first walk it, you have no idea how long it will take you to get to the center. And just when you think you're getting close, your path turns and you start walking away. Depending on your tolerance for the uncertain, this can be wonderfully unexpected or incredibly frustrating, but it's an excellent mirror for how you view surprise bends in your own life.

There are a couple of different ways to use the labyrinth, depending on what you want to get out of it. First, you can use it as a simple, physical way to spend time with God. Some people have a hard time praying while sitting still (some people just need to be MOVING), and this is a great way to get over that barrier to prayer. You can pray the same way you might if you weren't using the labyrinth, but with more focus than if you were prayer walking around town (you don't need to watch for moving cars while praying in the labyrinth!). You can enter the labyrinth with the simple intention of time with God, allowing Him to reveal things to you through your surroundings, through your thought patterns, through your manner of walking. Or you can view the labyrinth through a more formal lens. As you walk toward the center, think of all your labels, all your roles, all of the descriptors of who you are to the outside world. Focus on setting it all aside, stripping them off one by one. When you get to the center of the labyrinth, surround yourself with the glory of God's love for you. Think about who you are in Christ, allow God to envelope you with His plan for your life, His descriptors, His love. When you are ready, travel back through the labyrinth, listening for how God wants you to take that peace, that message, that love you experienced in the labyrinth center and share it with the world. As you travel back to your regularly scheduled life, let God guide you in how to live out the specifics. And as you exit the labyrinth, give thanks to God for the experience.

It doesn't matter which method of labyrinth walking you choose- and you can choose to mix them up as you see fit. I'm sure that if you search for additional formal ways to walk the labyrinth, you'd find many other ways to think through it- the options listed above were simply the ones that I found when I was researching this activity. But it's important to note that labyrinth walking tends to produce different extremes in people. Some walk the labyrinth and think, "Is that it?" They feel it's an anticlimactic experience and that they didn't get much out of it. Others get so much out of it that they feel emotionally overwhelmed. It's NOT uncommon for people to cry while walking the labyrinth- but it's equally common for people to feel it wasn't an earth-moving experience for them. So don't feel weird if you have either of those reactions.

So that all sounds good, right? Or at the very least, benign? Why would anyone be against Christians using a labyrinth? I'll try to summarize it as best I can, but please keep in mind that any controversial issue has nuances that are hard to shorten. That said, the main concern with labyrinths is that they're not a strictly Christian practice and they predate Christianity by several hundred years. Though they've been found in Christian churches since the Middle Ages, they were first used as a pagan method of getting in touch with earthly spiritualities, and some people still use them as such- either in a new-agey, earth vibrations kind of way, or as a not so religious, atheistic or non-monotheistic form of meditation. So one of the biggest concerns that some Christians have with labyrinths is that they go against the scriptures that state Christians should have nothing to do with pagan traditions (Deuteronomy 4:2, Deut. 12:4 and 12:32). They also reference Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:9, both of which have Jesus quoting Isaiah 29:13- though Jesus is quoting it in terms of putting the tradition of ceremonial washing above the commandments of God. Christians with this belief feel that unless a spiritual practice is listed in the Bible, it has no place in the Christian tradition. For them, to incorporate non-biblical practices and ideals into the Christian framework for experiencing God indicates that

A) the believer feels that God didn't give us enough (or "good enough") ways to experience Him, indicating a rejection of the standard Christian belief that Yaweh/God always provides everything you need
B) the believer puts more emphasis on human knowledge and traditions than on God-given requirements
C) a believer can "cherry-pick" from different religions (part of the everyone-must-find-their-own-truth mantra), rather than believing that Christianity is the only true path to everlasting life
and
D) a believer can change the nature of a thing by changing its purpose or its description (though a knife still has the ability to cut, even if it's being used as a hammer and a brunette is still fundamentally a brunette, no matter how many boxes of hair dye she uses.)  

It's worth noting that Christians who object to using a pagan tradition such as a labyrinth as a way to experience God, often also reject the tradition of changing pagan celebrations into Christian celebrations for many of the same reasons. This primarily comes into focus during Easter and Christmas, with their refusal to celebrate with symbols such as Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies (as those were both first used as pagan symbols of fertility as the spring celebration of the goddess Eostra) or Christmas trees and evergreen boughs (which were used to celebrate Saturnalia and Bacchus); instead they prefer to celebrate the Resurrection (NOT Easter) and if they celebrate Christmas, they choose a day that does not coincide with the pagan winter solstice celebrations. This could be a lengthy post in and of itself, though, so I'll leave it at that.

What do you think? Do you feel that labyrinths are a healthy, available spiritual practice that has the ability to help you deepen your faith? Or does their use actually indicate an incomplete faith in God- that the believer is casting about for anything that might help them fill a void? Or are you somewhere in between?