Who is at the center of your life?

As I was reading Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus, his final thoughts captured my attention in Ephesians 1:23.

"The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence." (The Message)

Paul had prayed that God would make the church intelligent and discerning. He prayed that their eyes would be focused and clear in order to know His plan for their lives. He then digresses into the above verse. That word "peripheral" caught my attention. In computer terminolgy, peripherals refer to the external hardware that is connected to the computer. It could be a printer or a scanner. It might be a camera or even an external hard drive. These are peripheral items. They do not run the computer. The computer controls them. Peripheral comes from a shorter word "periphery" which means "edge." We're talking about boundaries. The church is not to be on the edge of the world. The world is to be at the edge of the church. Christ has empowered us - He has given us the authority - to be in control of our lives. The world should not be influencing us, we ought to be influencing the world.