Balance

Nik Wallenda is hardly a household name. But every once in a while he captures the attention of the world. The latest time was just two months ago on June 23rd when he completed a quarter mile, 22 minute, tightrope walk over the Little Colorado River Gorge in the Grand Canyon in front of a world-wide audience on the Discovery Channel. Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, about the size of a tennis ball, 1,500 feet above the river. He didn't wear a harness and stepped slowly and steady, even with 30 mph winds blowing across the gorge. Wallenda described the winds as "unpredictable" and noted that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses. He reported to the Discovery Channel: "It took every bit of me to stay focused the entire time."

Life is a balancing act and the stakes are high. No harnesses are allowed and the winds are varied and relentless. Dust from the world can impair our vision. Focus is required or balance is gone in a heartbeat. 

You know what it is like to lose balance in life. Lack of sleep. A broken relationship. Being too busy to do the things you want to do or be with the people you want to be with. Doing what is urgent and not what is important. Being forgetful and fragmented. Stress. Conflict. Anxiety. Boredom. Despair. 

Lives get out of balance for all sorts of reasons. Some times it’s no fault of our own. Cutbacks at work cause the loss of a job or maybe a medical diagnosis comes our way. Many times it is driven by an unhealthy culture: We do our best to keep up with the Jones family or we bought into the myth that busy is better. And other times it is our own dysfunctional behavior. We made a bad choice or two and lost our balance. 

It’s not God’s plan for our lives to be out of balance. Just like a loving parent, God’s plan for humanity is balance. Theologian Thomas Merton writes: “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” 

We have lost our balance before and will lose our balance again. Some us of may be trying to pick our selves up from the concrete right now. Recovery and healing to a place of balance is God’s desire for us and is a manifestation of grace. 

As the school year begins, balance can be a real challenge. We are going to be exploring what the Bible says about balance Sunday morning and Sunday evening in worship and throughout the week with our WE Grow guides. In the meantime, I pray all of us discover and embrace the grace of balance in our lives. 

The best is yet to come… 

Craig