Holy Week in the Labyrinth

Every year, during Holy Week, or the week leading up to Easter Sunday, my church at home, a nondenominational church called Grace Chapel, holds Sacred Spaces. Sacred Spaces consists of 7 stations set up throughout our church building and it's a time for people to come and quietly reflect on their lives and connect to God and listen to Him for a bit. It's a way for people to reset. I've always loved it and have found it incredibly peaceful and relaxing to just sit and reflect on my life for a few hours. 

This year, one of the stations that was set up was a labyrinth. I found this incredibly fitting to our class and our experience exploring the labyrinth by Holt Chapel back at Elon. The station had a card for visitors to read, titled "Walking in the Way." It discussed how there are often times in our lives when we get stuck. Whether it's busyness or boredom or a decision that we can't make - we stop moving forward and we treat the crossroads as a permanent place, instead of something we pass through. Proverbs 4:11-12, 14, 18 and 25-26 were listed on the card, telling the reader to walk with confidence. In the Christian faith, especially at my church, our congregation is encouraged to trust God and to trust that there is always a way that is good. We are taught that there is a way to live with wisdom.

Visitors to this station were then instructed to enter the labyrinth. The card read, "Be refreshed by the promise that there is a way of righteousness. On your way toward the center, talk to Jesus, who calls Himself the Way, about the path you are traveling and what it's been like lately. From the center back out, simply listen."

It was interesting to walk the labyrinth at my church - when we did it as a class, I was distracted by everyone around me and honestly by the wind that day that kept blowing at my dress. Walking the labyrinth alone, I found the entire process calming and meditative. I found myself reflecting on my life and the past year, my first semester in college, and it cleared up a lot of things for me. I found it tedious when we walked the labyrinth as a class because I felt like the loops just went on forever, but walking it alone, I cherished every step. 

This station helped me to understand what the labyrinth is for Christians. It doesn't hold any specific religious meaning, but rather is a way to focus on one thing and not get distracted by outside matters. I found that in the labyrinth, I was so focused on turning at the right places that I wasn't thinking about the things that had been stressing me out or worrying me - I really only had time to reflect. And I think that's the whole point - to help people, Christian or not, to meditate on their lives and to just breathe and to be for a bit. To just be.