...here is the center

My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed;

I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead.

I need no other argument, I need no other plea,

It is enough that Jesus died, and that He died for me.

---Lidie Edmunds, c. 1890

We’ve all heard the stories of the minutiae that divide Christians from time to time. The color of the pew cushions in the new sanctuary. The organ…loud or soft? Bongos and guitars in the Sunday morning worship. Whether to sing all four verses of every hymn. King James or NRSV?

This hymn reminds me every time that letting the small things get in the way of the one true thing --- Christ’s sacrifice to reconcile us to God --- keeps us far from each other, and from our spiritual center. Our faith rests not in creed, argument, or the thousand little things good people sometimes disagree about. Our faith rests in the good news, the gospel, that Christ died for you…and me. Here is our resting place. Here is our center.