Centering our Homes on Christ

[If the wonders of the world hadn’t stopped at seven, Cobble’s knot would have been number eight.

Nobody knew how it got there… one morning, as [Cobble] unlocked the front door for business, he saw the knot.  It was dangling from the flagpole…  He got out a pair of scissors and was about to snip it off, when he noticed what an unusual and incredible knot it was.  

And then he got an idea.  He could offer a prize to anyone who untangled the knot... 

If you look at old pictures in the Two Mills Times, you see that the knot was about the size and shape of a lopsided volleyball.  It was made of string, but it had more contortions… than the brain of Albert Einstein himself...

[Maniac] lifted it in his hands to feel the weight of it.  He touched it here and touched it there, gently, daintily. He scraped a patch of crust off with his fingernail.  He laid his fingertips on it, as though feeling for a pulse...

After an hour, except for a few more finger-size loops, all Maniac had to show for his trouble were the flakes of knot crust that covered the table...

What people saw they didn’t believe.  

The knot had grown, swelled, exploded.  It was a frizzy globe… 

“He found the end!”  Somebody gasped, and the corner burst into applause...

...Maniac did the last thing anybody expected: he lay down and took a nap right there on the table…  Maniac knew what the rest of them didn’t: the hardest part was yet to come.  He had to find the right routes to untangle the mess, or it would just close up again like a rock and probably stay that way forever… He needed to clear his head, flush away all distraction...

In exactly fifteen minutes, he woke up and started back in.

Like some fairytale tailor, he threaded the end through the maze… It got lumpy, out of shape, saggy… 

And then, around dinnertime, a huge roar went up, a volcano of cheers.  Cobble’s knot was dead.  Undone.  Gone.  It was nothing but string.]

The above lines are an excerpt from one of my all-time favorite children’s books – Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. The reason I like this passage from the book so much is because it presents a powerful lesson. The knot Maniac, unties didn’t die without a fight.  It held on and gave Maniac more trouble as he went along. Spinelli describes what happened to the knot as having “grown, swelled, exploded”.

When I first read the story, I liked the imagery that was presented there and marveled at how the knot had to become bigger and nastier before Maniac could rid the string of the nuisance.  For the longest time, I didn’t understand how this happened. Why hadn’t the knot simply grown smaller as Maniac worked his magic?

It wasn’t until a few years after having read the story and I was attempting to tidy up my room that I started to truly understand what happened.  While I wasn’t working on untying any physical knots, it seemed this corner of untidiness was a metaphorical knot of confusion.  I started moving things here and there in an attempt to clean when, all of a sudden, I saw it.

My messy corner had exploded over my entire room just as the knot had swelled for Maniac. I became very frustrated with this and it took me quite a while to finally conquer the growing problem.  

I recently read ‘The Joy of Living a Christ-Centered Life’ by Elder Richard Maynes that helped me see the exploding phenomenon in a new light. Instead of seeing it through the lens of knots and messy rooms, I saw it through his metaphor of a pottery wheel.

Elder Maynes refers to a story of a group of young men and young women being taught by a master potter.  The students each had the opportunity to sit in front of the pottery wheel and attempt to form something of the wet clay.  Each student, in turn, watched as clay exploded off the spinning wheel in every direction.  

The master had made the task of making pottery look so easy and the students were shocked to find that this assumption was far from the truth.  They all gave their reasons as to why they had been unable to make anything but just like Maniac knew what his spectators did not, the pottery master knew what his students did not. Unless the clay is positioned on the exact center of the wheel, the clay will never stay put.  

In the case of pottery making, the explosion is more literal than with the knots and messy room but in all three examples the main goal is to create something usable while avoiding as much further disorder and destruction as possible.  Elder Maynes explicitly explains just how this can be done with the following thought:

“Like the clay on the potter’s wheel, we must be centered as well. Our core, the center of our lives, must be Jesus Christ and His gospel. Living a Christ-centered life means we learn about Jesus Christ and His gospel and then we follow His example and keep His commandments with exactness.”

What this means to me is that whether we are faced with literal or emotional disorder, spiritual knots binding us and keeping us from repenting or progressing, or trying to balance our lives on the metaphorical pottery wheel of life, centering on Christ is the only sure way to come out on top.  Christ is the mediator that enables us through His atonement to avoid or diminish the frustrating explosions in our lives.

This is not necessarily an easy task.  It takes faith and patience and understanding to turn to Christ and follow His commandments with exactness.  Be this as it may, we can’t slack off.  The need to center on Christ has never been more requisite.  In fact, Elder Maynes stated this when he said, “The world in which we live is similar to the potter’s spinning wheel, and the speed of that wheel is increasing.”

It would be nice to know of somewhere we could turn to for refuge from this ever-present potential for disaster that a fast moving world provides.  Somewhere we can go to slow down and ‘take a break’ from the world. I believe that such a place would be holy and inviting; that it would help us come closer to the Lord.  

Another talk, ‘Holy Place, Sacred Space’ by Elder Dennis Neuenschwander gives four examples of such places of refuge: “Holy places have always been essential to the proper worship of God… such holy places include venues of historic significance, our homes, sacrament meetings, and temples… These sacred places inspire our faith and give us encouragement to be true to that faith and to move forward, despite the challenges that may cross our path.”

With the current worldwide pandemic going on  today, many individuals and families are left with only one option – staying home. While there is an abundance of uncertainty in these times, we still have a wonderful opportunity to make our homes holy places of worship that help us find shelter from the storm of the world around us.  

Elder Neuenschwander further stated “Our homes… are holy places filled with sacred space. Though not always tranquil, our homes can be filled with the Spirit of the Lord.”  

I think this is a crucial truth to understand.  We need not have a perfect, bicker-free home in order to find holy sanctuary there.  The key ingredient to establishing a holy edifice within the walls of our homes is the Spirit of the Lord. With this Spirit, we have the ability to find our simple, sacred shelters that help prepare us for the buffets Satan sends our way in the world of chaos and disorder.  

During the time of uncertainty, might I suggest two directives that can help us get to the desired Spirit-filled home. 

The first directive is simplification. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk titled ‘It works wonderfully!’ in which he outlined the importance of simplifying our efforts to turn to Christ. Said he, “I pray that we will focus on ‘the simplicity that is in Christ’ and allow His grace to lift and carry us during our journey from where we are now to our glorious destiny in our Father’s presence.”

He continues with this sentiment: “If you ever think that the gospel isn’t working so well for you, I invite you to step back, look at your life from a higher plane, and simplify your approach to discipleship. Focus on the basic doctrines, principles, and applications of the gospel. I promise that God will guide and bless you on your path to a fulfilling life, and the gospel will definitely work better for you.”

Elder Uchtdorf mentioned discipleship specifically, but the simplification approach works for many aspects of our gospel living. We can take a step back and look at our home life from a higher plane and focus on applying gospel principles within our homes. We don’t need to radically change things, just refocus on Christ and the glad tidings his life and teachings bring, and the Spirit will automatically increase and bless our efforts.

The second directive is sacrifice. Said Elder Neuenschwander: “The establishment of our homes as holy places reflects the depth of sacrifice we are willing to make for them… Great personal preparation is required for us to receive the spiritual benefit of standing in holy places. Holy places and sacred space are also distinguished by the sacrifice they require… the word sacrifice means literally ‘to make sacred,’ or ‘to render sacred.”

In order to establish our homes as sacred and holy, it will take great preparation on the part of each individual.  In fact, Elder Neuenschwander further taught that, “Our ability to seek, recognize, and reverence the holy above the profane, and the sacred above the secular, defines our spirituality”.

I think Maniac Magee gives us a profound example of this principle.  Untying Cobble’s knot seems to be a metaphor for the simplification of our lives.  Maniac did not step onto the table with hubris from all the recognition others gave him. Instead, he humbly stood before the knot and got to know it.  He didn’t rush and he even took a nap to clear his mind.  On all accounts, by the time the string was knot-less and was simple and usable once more, it was a sacred symbol of the effort Maniac put in.

The need for Christ-centered homes is real.  And they are worth the time, effort, and any temporary bigger mess while we figure out how to simplify through the direction of the Holy Ghost. Our lives do not need to be chaotically twisted knots of unhappiness. We can maintain control with the Lord’s help and find joy in life.  We are not alone, and the Savior will support and uplift us as we simplify our lives and make the sacrifices that are necessary to find peace within the walls of our homes, even in uncertain times.