Flesh. The sum of Christianity revolves around this little word. John said it best: “The Word became flesh (John 1:14).
Or to put it another way, God walked a mile not only in our shoes, but also in our feet—in our ankles, shinbones, kneecaps, and hip joints. At the core of the Christian faith is the Word that became skin and bones and blood. Prayer is a celebration of the incarnation. Because humans do not pray in the abstract—in the absence of a body or context— prayer becomes an embodied activity in which Christians pray in the flesh to Christ in the flesh. For this reason, prayer can take many physical forms. Protestants bow their heads for prayer. The Orthodox and Catholics bow their bodies for prayer. In Ghana, Africa, the Asante tribe kicks their prayers to God. “Yey boe m pie ey,” as they say—“let us kick prayer.”
Prayer might be kicked, but it can also be walked. Labyrinth walking, also known as “prayer in motion,” is a physical discipline that reflects the spiritual yearning to get at the heart of God. Unlike a maze, which is a puzzle riddled with dead ends and turnarounds, a labyrinth is a continuous path leading into and away from the center. Though it is unfamiliar to many Protestants living in a linear, Western world, labyrinth walking is a whole body experience that has much to teach us about centering ourselves on Christ.
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