The Balancing Act

I long ago came to the realization that I have absolutely no side-to-side balance needed for any "boarding" sport. My brief forays into these sports have ended in complete disaster, which in hindsight I can actually laugh at now. My first time snowboarding I wrecked my ankle and had to be taken down the hill by the ski patrol. Oh, and this comes without actually going down the hill but simply my inability to get off the chair lift. My ability to skateboard begins and ends with simply standing on the board never mind any attempt at momentum. I swore off wake boarding after consuming several galleons of highly questionable Mary Lake water. This ultimately makes me wonder why I have now attempted to take up surfing, which my record after three full days stands at 4 seconds standing on the board (prayer for safety is appreciated...).

While there are loads of people who can do all of these sports with varying levels of skill, it ultimately begins with a good sense of balance. As my example has proved, my inability to balance has unfortunately ended any aspirations I held to boarding glory. In addition to the need for balance in sports, balance is necessary for our quality of life and in its absence we find ourselves at a loss to even gain traction. Aristotle was the first to pick up this relationship within life in his philosophy of ethics. He purposed that virtue can only be understood as the balance between the extremity of vice. It is when we have a deficiency or excess in our life that we find ourselves devolving into vice. He provides the humorous example of the virtue of bravery whereby those that exhibit an excess are guilty of the vice of rashness as they run into battle naked and unprepared while in contrast those that are guilty the deficient are ascribing to the vice of cowardice as they hide behind a rock, unable to fight. It should not be our aspiration to be either but to reach the virtuous mean of bravery.

However, Aristotle then spends the remainder of his book attempting to answer how we attain the middle ground of virtue; how to achieve the illusive balance? He exasperates at the end that it "is hard work to be excellent. For in each case [of virtue] it is hard work to find the balance... everyone can get angry, to spend money, is easy...but doing things [with balance] is rare, praiseworthy, and fine."

The key here that Aristotle picked up on thousands of years ago is that balance in life is not something that we stumble upon. He earlier had noted that our natural inclination is to the extreme and poses one of the greatest challenges we face. We are creatures of extremes; when we find something we like we seize hold, when we encounter something we dislike we avoid with all severity, and when we get set into these patterns it become an intense challenge to retreat back to moderation. I am reminded of Galatians 5 and the list of the fruit of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. As I survey the fruit of the flesh there are one or two the instantly convict and I can see patterns in my own life. By God's grace these are reducing patterns but there is a specific draw to specific sins. I may be guilty of all sins but I will battle with a select few. In contrast however, God is not calling us to pick one or two fruit of the Spirit for us but desires that we cultivate them all. I may be growing in self-control and patience but what is that worth if I am not loving (hint: 1 Cor. 13:2). As Paul notes in 1 Cor. 9:26-27, "so I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control." There is a need for focus, intentionality, and effort in the life lived in the Spirit. So as Aristotle unknowingly points out for us, balance is hard work. But yet it is worth it: balance is important, balance is healthy, and, most importantly, balance is godly.


Of course this all leads to an explosion of new questions: What does balance even look like ? Not only is balance hard to achieve, but how do we know we have attained it? What does a godly balance look like in compared to a worldly balance? Is there a difference? How does balance relate to certainty? Can a balanced life still passionately pursue Christ? Isn't Christ supposed to occupy an imbalanced portion of our life? Doesn't complete balance just lead to compartmentalism?

The importance in this principle, as with any other, is to bring the theoretical to application for the glory of Christ in our lives. It is with that aim that we then seek to answer these questions as we apply this principle. Over the next three posts I will hope to answer these questions as I address 3 areas in which balance is crucial to our spiritual lives.

These three are:
1) My Time - Balance is loving
2) My Theology - Balance is worship
3) My Telos - Balance is God given

Quick note - I had originally planned this as one blog but it has become so long I have reached my limit and so I will parcel this out into four blogs.