Saturday, August 29, 2009

Balanced Living


One of the recurring wishes of my life is that I wish I lived in in a more balanced way. Every vacation ends with an inner pledge something like, "I'm going to do things differently now. More of this, less of that. I will balance my life henceforth and live in peace!" And then, of course, I do more of this and less of that for about a day and a half, and within 36 hours life returns to the unbalanced mess that it always is. The same thing happens at the end of summer, the beginning of a new year, and pretty much anytime I go to the beach or look up at the stars on a clear night. You'd think I'd toss up my hands and realize that I'm never going to get it right. But I'm a dreamer and I keep seeking that balance in life.

I think that's why the passage from Ephesians 5 hit me as being about balanced living. Strictly speaking, from a theological point of view, it's not about balance. But the beauty of preaching is that this is where the passage hit me this week. Next week it could be about lawn mowing or baseball playoffs. So the sermon is growing into looking at Paul's answer to the question, "What does the Christian life look like?" He doesn't ask that, but that's sort of intrinsic in the passage. And the answer seems to me to be, "Balance your life in God." Not that God is the top priority on a list of priorities, but that a life lived in God will naturally be balanced. Paul even says, "Don't live like a fool." The NIV says "don't live unwisely" but a better translation is really, "Don't be an idiot, a fool." That sounds more like Paul anyway.

So maybe my perpetual problem of being out of balance is more accurately a problem of not truly living in God. Being a fool. Hmm. That's disturbing. - Curtis