You Are The Center -Discovering The Life Within You
When somebody calls you self-centered, it is usually not a compliment. We hear that phrase and think of someone who is selfish, consumed with themselves, or convinced that the world revolves around them. But I want to play with that phrase and give it a little spin. Maybe one of humanity's problems is not that we have been too centered within ourselves, but that we have spent most of our lives looking everywhere except within ourselves for what we need.
Think about how much of life is built around the search for something outside of us. We look outside ourselves for identity, answers, peace, direction, approval, purpose, wisdom, provision, opportunity, love, and even God. We are often taught to believe that what we need is somewhere else, that someone else has access to it, that a future experience will bring it, or that some change in our circumstances will finally make us whole.
That way of living can turn life into one long chase. There is always another answer to find, another person to impress, another level to reach, another sign to receive, another breakthrough to experience, or another thing we believe we need before we can finally feel settled. The search keeps moving because the assumption beneath it never changes. We keep believing that something essential is missing.
But what if the problem is not that we are missing something? What if we have never been empty or under-equipped? What if the real problem is that we have not understood who we are, what we are, or what is already present within us?
That is what I mean by Self-Center. I am not talking about making your ego the center of the world or believing everything revolves around you. I am talking about discovering the center within yourself from which your life actually flows.
The Search Outside of Ourselves
We can see this outward search almost everywhere once we know what to look for. Identity is one of the clearest examples. People often look to titles, careers, relationships, accomplishments, social media, education, ministry roles, or the opinions of other people to tell them who they are. There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but they describe what we do or how other people relate to us. They do not tell us who we are.
If I need to be called Prophet Serge in order to feel significant, then the title is doing something for me that it was never meant to do. The same thing can happen with any title. Someone may need to be called doctor, pastor, entrepreneur, or author, because the title helps them feel important. The problem is that once identity is attached to what we do, we have to keep doing more in order to keep feeling like somebody.
That is why the chase for identity never really ends when we look for it outside of ourselves. There is always another accomplishment to reach, another audience to gain, another person to impress, or another level to achieve. We can become so busy building an image that we never actually discover who we are apart from all the things we do.
We do the same thing with answers. Something happens and our first instinct is often to ask somebody else what we should think. We ask a minister, friend, mentor, Google, or AI before we ever become still enough to ask what we already know. In some of the religious circles I came from, this showed up through prophecy. People wanted someone to prophesy over them because they wanted an outside voice to tell them who they were, where they should go, or what they should do next.
There is nothing wrong with receiving wisdom from someone else. People can help us see things we have missed, and healthy relationships can expand our understanding. The problem begins when the outside voice becomes more trustworthy to us than the knowing within. Scripture says we have the mind of Christ. John says the anointing remains within and even says, “you know all things.” Yet many people who confess those things still live as though somebody else has access to something they do not.
Peace is another place where the outward search becomes obvious. We tell ourselves that we will finally have peace when the bills are paid, when the conflict ends, when the relationship improves, when the diagnosis changes, when our children are doing well, or when life becomes easier. The problem is that life keeps moving. Good seasons come and difficult seasons come. Money changes. Relationships change. Unexpected things happen. If our peace depends on everything outside of us becoming perfect, then peace will always remain somewhere in the future.
Provision can become another outside source. We look at our employer, bank account, clients, the economy, the government, or other people and allow those things to determine how secure we feel. When those things look good, we feel safe. When they look uncertain, we begin to feel uncertain.
When we believe our employer is our source, losing the job can feel like losing our future. When the economy is our source, every change in the economy becomes a threat. When the number in our bank account is our source, that number begins governing our sense of peace.
Something changes when we begin to understand that the source of what we bring into life begins within us. Creativity and imagination start to matter differently. Wisdom starts taking a deeper place. Relationships become more important. Resourcefulness and Ideas matter in a deeper way. The ability to see possibility where other people see limitation matters. Governance begins to matter in a completely different way.
Opportunity works the same way. We can spend years waiting for someone to discover us, hire us, promote us, platform us, invite us, or open a door for us. We may have something within us that wants to be expressed, but we keep waiting for somebody outside of us to give us permission. At some point the question has to change from, “Who is going to open the door for me?” to, “What can I create from where I am?”
Even our understanding of God has often been built around the same outward movement. We look toward a church building, worship service, preacher, future revival, future heaven, or some special atmosphere as though God becomes more present there than here. We say things like, “I cannot wait to meet Jesus face to face,” even while saying that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We talk about “when the Spirit comes down” while also saying Spirit already lives within us. We build whole expectations around a future kingdom while Jesus says the kingdom is within.
Religion can keep us focused almost everywhere except within. It teaches people to wait for God to come, wait for Spirit to move, wait for an answer, wait for a breakthrough, or find somebody who supposedly has access to something they do not. Yet when we pay attention to the language of Jesus and the apostles, it continually brings us back to what is already present.
The kingdom is within you. Christ is in you. Spirit dwells in you. You have the mind of Christ. You know all things. You have already been given everything for life and godliness. The movement keeps turning us inward, not because the outside world does not matter, but because the source is not out there somewhere.
More Equipped Than We Realize
Before we talk about what a person can create or bring into the world, we have to begin with how equipped humanity already is. It is difficult to understand human power while still believing humans are empty.
The language used about humanity is much larger than most of us have allowed ourselves to believe.
The kingdom is within you.
Spirit is within you. Christ is within you.
The living God is within you.
You are the temple of God.
You are one with God.
You are one Spirit with Christ.
You are one flesh with Christ.
You are described as the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
You are the exact image of God
You are the exact likeness of God.
You have the mind of Christ.
You know all things.
You have everything for life and everything for godliness.
You are righteousness.
You are complete.
You lack nothing.
You are the light and the salt of the earth.
Love is at the core of who and what you are.
Peace is within you.
Wisdom is within you.
Truth is within you.
The anointing is within you.
You are the place of reconciliation.
Governance comes from within you.
Life itself is within you.
Life flows through you into the earth.
As He is, so are you in this world.
When we allow those statements to stand together, we have to ask a serious question: does that sound like an under-equipped human being?
It does not!
Yet we have constructed a picture of humanity as weak, spiritually helpless, ignorant, unreliable, and dependent on something outside itself. We have told people they are sinners while Scripture speaks of righteousness. We have told people not to trust themselves while also telling them they are one with God, that they possess the mind of Christ, and that Spirit lives within them.
We have even taught people to be at war with themselves. Many have been trained to believe there is some deeply corrupt part within them that must always be fought, suppressed, and distrusted. They live suspicious of their own desires, their own knowing, their own imagination, and even their own humanity.
But Christ brought peace. Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies. Union does not produce people who are forever divided against themselves. The language of separation tells humanity that it is empty, while the language of union tells humanity that it is full.
Second Peter says everything needed for life and godliness has already been given to us. I think we often rush through that sentence because the word everything is almost too large to take seriously. We hear it, agree with it, and then immediately begin living as though we still lack most of what we need.
But the statement is not small. Everything for life and godliness means everything for life and godliness. It does not say we will eventually receive it. It does not say we will have it after another spiritual breakthrough. It does not say we will have it once our circumstances improve. It says it has been given… Here and now!
The limits we place around that statement may be our limits, not God's.
There Is No Spiritual You and Natural You
One reason we struggle to understand this is because we have separated spiritual life from natural life. We hear that we have everything for godliness and immediately think about love, patience, peace, faith, spiritual gifts, prayer, or ministry. Those things are easy for us to put into the spiritual category.
But Peter does not only say godliness. He says life and godliness. That takes the conversation much further because it means this fullness cannot be limited to what happens in the spiritual realm. This covers your natural realm also. The Life within you matters in business, relationships, creativity, parenting, money, art, decision-making, leadership, conflict, problem-solving, and every other part of human experience.
We have often created one category for “God things” and another category for “human things,” but I do not see Jesus living that way. Jesus showed humanity what humanity looks like without the distortion of separation, and there was no clear line dividing His spiritual life from His natural life.
He ate meals. He attended weddings. He dealt with conflict. He talked about money. He met practical needs. He challenged systems. He healed bodies. He fed hungry people. He sat at tables. He talked with friends. It was all one life. He also raised the dead, healed the sick, walked on water and fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish.
There were not two versions of Jesus, and there are not two versions of us. There is one Life.
The same wisdom within you that matters in a spiritual conversation also matters when you make a business decision. The same imagination within you that allows you to see possibility can create art, solve a problem, design a home, write a song, or build something that does not yet exist. The same peace within you can change the way you walk into conflict. The same love within you can transform the atmosphere of a relationship.
This is one reason the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand stands out to me. The disciples looked at the situation and immediately saw what they did not have. There were too many people and not enough food, so their whole response began with lack.
Jesus moved in the opposite direction. Instead of building the conversation around what they did not have, He looked to what they did have. Five loaves and two fish may not have looked like enough, but He started with what was present rather than what appeared to be missing. That is a completely different way of approaching life.
How many situations do we enter already declaring what we do not have? We do not have enough money, enough help, enough influence, enough knowledge, enough opportunity, or the right connections. Before we even begin, we have already decided that the circumstances are larger than what we carry.
What happens when we move from another place? What happens when we begin with the conviction that we already possess everything for life and godliness and then ask how that fullness can engage the situation in front of us?
That does not mean we pretend every challenge is easy. It means we refuse to allow the challenge to define what is true about us or our circumstance. A person who carries wisdom can make decisions that eventually build a thriving business. A person who carries imagination can create art or solve a problem that other people could not see how to solve. A person living from peace can walk into a room filled with conflict and introduce a completely different way of being. person that knows the very Spirit in which they are in union can minister healing in situations that seem to have no hope.
The inner life and the outer life are not separate worlds. They are constantly interacting.
Your Outward Life Is Fruit
The image of fruit helps make this simple. Fruit does not travel toward a tree from the outside. Nobody walks through an orchard and attaches apples to apple trees. The fruit appears because there is Life working within the tree. The branch simply reveals what the tree has been carrying all along.
The same thing happens with us. Our outward lives are fruit of our inward lives. Love becomes visible because love is present within. Peace becomes visible because peace is present within. Kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control become outward expressions of Life that is already moving inwardly. But I do not believe fruit should be limited only to what we call spiritual character. Natural life produces fruit from within too.
A song can be fruit. A business can be fruit. A healthy relationship can be fruit. A book can be fruit. An invention can be fruit. A solution can be fruit. A community can be fruit. A home can be fruit. The way someone responds to difficulty can be fruit. The outward form may change, but the movement is the same. Something unseen becomes visible.
A musician can sit in silence and hear music nobody else hears. A writer can stare at a blank page and see words that have not yet been written. An entrepreneur can look at a problem and see a business where somebody else only sees frustration. Someone can stand in an empty field and see a building that does not exist yet.
At first, nobody else can walk into that building because it exists only within the imagination of the person seeing it. But then the inner vision begins to move outward. It becomes a drawing, the drawing becomes a plan, the plan becomes decisions, materials arrive, people begin building, and eventually everyone else can walk inside something that once existed only within one person.
When you stop and think about that, it is remarkable. Human beings have the ability to take something unseen and bring it into visible form.
That is power.
We Are Powerful Beings
Many people have been taught to associate humility with powerlessness. We sometimes imagine that speaking highly of humanity somehow takes something away from God, as though God becomes greater when humans think less of themselves.
But if humanity is made in the image and likeness of God, one with Spirit, filled with Life, and given everything for life and godliness, why would recognizing human power dishonor the Life humanity expresses?
As a father, I know what it feels like to see a child think poorly of themselves. It is painful to watch someone you love live insecure, ashamed, afraid, or convinced they are incapable of anything meaningful. You do not feel honored when your child thinks they are worthless. You want them to know who they are and what they carry. You want them to stand with confidence because they understand where they came from. I do not believe God feels differently about humanity.
One of humanity's greatest problems may not be that we have no power. It may be that powerful beings have been convinced they are powerless. Those born of God have been convinced that they are not what they are born of. But if you are born of Spirit, what are you? If you are born of God, what are you? If God is Life and you are born of that Life, then we have to rethink the way we talk about humanity.
This does not mean humans control every event that happens. Other people make choices. Systems affect us. Accidents happen. Difficult circumstances appear that we did not create or choose. Recognizing human power does not require pretending we are in absolute control of everything. Our power is seen in the way we engage what happens.
That is where governance becomes important. Governance is the bridge between the unseen and the seen. An idea remains an idea until it is governed into action. Wisdom remains within until it becomes a decision. Peace remains unseen until it becomes the way we respond. Love remains unseen until it becomes expression. Imagination remains possibility until somebody moves.
This is part of what it means for humanity to govern the earth. Governance does not have to mean domination or control. It can mean taking what is unseen and bringing it into form through decisions, creativity, relationships, words, work, movement, and action. Its laying the cards on the table and asking, “How do i govern this in a way that brings it to health?”.
That is why discovering the center within ourselves matters so much. If we do not know what is within us, we will continue looking outside ourselves for somebody else to govern our lives.
The World We Experience Is Shaped From Within
Our inner life also shapes the way we experience the outer world. Two people can live in the same house, share the same income, know the same people, face the same circumstances, and still experience life in completely different ways.
One can be thriving while the other feels trapped. One can see possibility while the other sees limitation. One can feel grateful while the other feels deprived. The outside circumstances may be almost identical, but the inner experience is different.
The same thing can happen with resources. Two people can have access to almost the same amount of money, time, relationships, or opportunity and produce completely different outcomes. One person sees those resources as too small to do anything meaningful, while another begins imagining what can be created from what is already available. The resources did not change. The way the person engaged them changed.
Even the physical world we see is processed within us. Our brains receive and interpret what our senses take in, which means we never encounter the outer world apart from the inner world. What we believe, what we notice, what we expect, and what we imagine all influence the way we move through life.
That does not mean external circumstances are imaginary or unimportant. It simply means they are not the whole story. The way we experience and respond to those circumstances is also being shaped from within.
This is why the answer is not always that we need more. Sometimes we do need additional resources, information, help, or opportunity, but often the deeper problem is that we do not know what we already carry or we do not know how to engage with it.
The Outside Can Help Without Becoming the Source
None of this means the outside world does not matter. We need one another. We learn from people. We need community. We use physical resources. We receive information. We collaborate. We encounter opportunities. We read books and have conversations that change the way we see things. The outside world can support us, challenge us, teach us, awaken us, and give us material to work with. It simply was never meant to become the source of our life.
A piano has keys, strings, wood, and metal, but the piano does not contain the song. The song comes through the person playing it. A canvas does not contain the painting, and paint does not contain the painting. Something within the artist uses those materials to give visible form to what they see.
A pile of lumber is not a house. Ingredients are not a meal. Words are not automatically a book. The outer world provides material, but something within gives that material direction.
This is why we need to stop assigning external things the responsibility of producing inward realities. A relationship is asked to produce worth. Money is asked to produce security. Circumstances are asked to produce peace. Achievement is asked to produce identity. Religion is asked to produce connection with God. Other people's opinions are asked to produce confidence.
Those things were never meant to carry that weight. A relationship can enrich your life, but it cannot create your worth. Money can give you options, but it cannot become the source of your peace. Achievement can be enjoyable and meaningful, but it cannot tell you who you are. Another person may awaken something within you, but they were never meant to become your source.
A healthy teacher should help you trust the knowing within yourself rather than making you dependent on their knowing. Healthy community should create room for what is already true within people to become visible. The purpose of relationship is not to replace the center within another person but to help create an environment where that Life can be expressed more fully.
Prayer From the Center
Once we begin to understand this, prayer starts to change too. Prayer no longer has to be built around the assumption that God is somewhere outside of us and we are trying to convince Him to send something down.
Much of the prayer language we inherited begins with distance. “God, come.” “God, send something.” “God, move.” “God, give me what I need.” Those prayers make sense if God is somewhere else and we are waiting for Him to cross the distance.
But what happens when we begin with union? What happens when we actually believe Spirit is within, Christ is within, the kingdom is within, and everything for life and godliness has already been given?
Prayer begins to become less about moving a distant God and more about becoming conscious of the Life already present. Instead of only asking for something to arrive, we begin asking what we are not seeing. We begin asking what is already within us that this moment is inviting us to express, what peace looks like in this situation, what possibility we have not considered, what wisdom is already present, and how we can govern what is in front of us in a way that produces health. That is a very different way of praying.
Prayer becomes awareness, exploration, communion, and participation. It becomes learning to live from the reality of union rather than praying from the assumption of separation.
Returning to the Center
This brings us back to the phrase Self-Center. Being self-centered normally means everything revolves around us, but that is not what I mean here. Self-Center means returning to the center within yourself where Life is abundantly present.
It means discovering the kingdom within, Christ within, Spirit within, wisdom within, peace within, creativity within, vision within, and love within. It means discovering the capacity to respond, imagine, create, and bring forth Life from the place within you.
This is where governance begins, and when we begin to live from that center, the movement of life starts changing from outside-in to inside-out. Instead of constantly asking what we need, we begin becoming aware of what we already carry. Instead of waiting for somebody to open a door, we begin asking what can be created. Instead of waiting for peace to arrive, we allow peace to enter the situation through us.
We stop looking for somebody else to tell us what God is saying and begin learning to listen within. We stop asking God to become present and begin becoming conscious of the Life in which we already live.
This is not a new place humanity has to reach. It is the place humanity was always meant to live from. The center has always been within. We simply learned to look everywhere else.
What Would You Stop Waiting For?
There are some questions worth sitting with after all of this. What are you still looking outside yourself for that may already be present within you? Where are you waiting for permission when you already know what you want to do? Where are you waiting for someone to tell you what you already know?
Where are you waiting for peace instead of allowing peace to flow from within you? Where are you waiting for opportunity instead of recognizing your ability to create one? Where are you calling yourself powerless when you actually possess the ability to respond, imagine, speak, create, connect, move, and govern?
The biggest question may be this: If you truly believed you were this equipped, what would you stop waiting for?
That question can expose a lot because we may discover that we have been waiting on God for something God has already placed within us. We may discover that we have been asking other people for permission to become who we already are. We may discover that we have been treating external circumstances as the source of something that can only truly arise from within. The problem may have never been a lack of Life. The problem may have been that we did not know how much Life we carried.
You are not an empty human being standing in a world filled with everything you need. You are already full, equipped, capable, and far more powerful than you have been taught to believe. The kingdom is within you, Spirit is within you, Christ is within you, wisdom is within you, peace is within you, creativity is within you, and Life itself is within you.
Your outward life becomes fruit of the Life you learn to live from within. That is what I mean by Self-Center. It is not making everything revolve around you. It is discovering the center within yourself from which your life has been flowing all along.
Continue The Journey
If this essay resonated with you, don't let the conversation end here. Urban Eden is more than a collection of articles—it's an ongoing journey of exploring identity, seeing God more clearly, and engaging life more fully.
Explore more reflections that challenge assumptions and invite deeper thinking.
Continue the conversation through honest discussions and fresh perspectives.
Go beyond the essays with books that unpack these ideas in greater depth.
Join us Friday evenings or discover more about our community.
Meet Serge
Serge is an author, minister, podcast host, and the founder of Urban Eden Community. his passion is helping people see God more clearly, awaken to who they are, and engage life more fully. Through essays, conversations, books, and community, his hope is to create spaces where people can ask honest questions and discover the life that's already present within them.
Stay Connected
Join others who are exploring these conversations each week.
Comments