You have probably heard many sayings about LIFE. For example: Life is too short to worry about it. Life happens when you least expect it. We only have today to live – yesterday is gone and tomorrow isn’t here yet. Life is like a rollercoaster – enjoy the ride! And one of my favorites, “You only live once, but if you do right, once is all you need.” (That one is attributed to Mae West.) Well, I’d like to add a saying of my own, “Life is a balancing act”. That may not be the catchiest phrase, but it is true.
What happens if you lose your balance while standing or walking? You stumble or fall. Women are certainly aware of the effects of hormonal imbalance. Not fun! How about the times that your washer goes out of balance? After some outrageously loud banging, it stops itself before it breaks (thank goodness). I think we can agree that being unbalanced usually has negative effects.
We need to consistently strive for balance in every aspect of our lives – in how we use our time; in how we expend our energy; in our relationships; in our jobs; in our home life; in our leisure and social life. We need a balanced diet, a balanced exercise routine, a balanced sleep regiment and a balanced checkbook. Balance is a very important part of life. Balance brings stability, steadiness, harmony, and equality to our lives.
Being unbalanced means that something in our lives is suffering while something else is being favored. What if we expend all of our energy at work? Our home life might suffer. What if we spend all our time playing video games? Many other aspects of life could suffer. What if we ate only sweets? Think of how unbalanced our health would be!
We may recognize the need for balance in all those physical categories, but what about balance in our minds? Our minds can go out of balance in a second. A random thought can send us into a tailspin. A difficult situation can wear us out and cloud our judgement. Unkind words can throw us for a loop. Many things can trigger ideas that clash with our beliefs. And those ideas can drag us away from our balanced thoughts if we’re not careful. Maintaining proper balance in our minds is critical to our well-being, because a balanced mind brings balance to the physical categories in our lives as well.
So, how do we maintain balance in our minds? First and foremost, we must have a standard on which to align our thinking and base our decisions. A standard that acts as our moral compass. A standard that defines for us things like right and wrong, good and bad, do and don’t. I can think of no better standard than the rock-solid truth of God’s Word. When we base our thought processes on what the Bible says, we will have a sure foundation. In Malachi, God says that He is the Lord and He changes not. (Mal 3:6) So, God is a constant. He says what He means and means what He says. Therefore, having His words as the standard for our believing is a solid foundation upon which we can firmly and confidently stand. And that foundation becomes the fulcrum for our balanced thinking.
Worldly ideas, on the other hand, are continuously changing. Wide-held opinions can change from one day to the next. What was considered a definitive fact yesterday can be debunked today. Consequently, worldly information is an unstable standard for our beliefs and therefore a precarious foundation which leaves our footing unsure. Plus, the fulcrum of worldly information is not only feeble, but also moveable.
To be clear, we cannot live our lives here on earth without any worldly information in our minds. Functioning in the physical world takes physical knowledge. The Bible doesn’t teach us how to brush our teeth. There is no lasagna recipe in the Bible. We learned to read and write by physical teaching. Our jobs require specific worldly knowledge in order to perform them. So, we cannot eliminate all worldly information from our lives. That would not be balanced either. And those basics are generally not worldly ideas that contradict God’s information . The worldly information we battle against is indoctrination that causes us to fear, or that promotes thinking contrary to the truth of God’s Word. Those are the ideas that can defeat us.
Now, here’s the rub; our minds are indiscriminately bombarded with worldly information all day long with little or no effort on our part. But we must make a conscious effort to put God’s information in our minds. Hence, if we don’t put forth that effort, worldly information wins by default. And if worldly information is all that is in our minds, we will be driven by the winds of uncertainty and tossed like the waves of the sea.
But let’s say that we do put forth the effort to get God’s Word into our minds. Will that keep us perfectly balanced? Unfortunately, not always. Of course, that doesn’t mean that God’s words aren’t perfectly balanced. They are. It means that they are subject to the battle that is continually raging in our minds. Worldly information, like the latter that I cited above always opposes God’s information. So even with God’s information in our minds, we are always faced with a choice. Will we choose God’s information, or will we allow worldly information to prevail in our thinking? This is the ongoing challenge that we face every day in order to secure proper balance in our minds.
When I was a kid, there were cartoons in which the main character would be caught between the “little devil” sitting on his shoulder and whispering bad ideas in the character’s left ear, and the “little angel” sitting on his right shoulder whispering good ideas in the other ear. Does that bring back memories for anyone? Maybe, maybe not, but it was a fairly accurate depiction of the conflict we face in our minds. Both sides are vying for our attention. And it is always up to us to choose which side we will listen to.
This is one of my favorite sections of scripture: (This is God working with Elijah)
1 Kings 19:11 – And he (God) said (to Elijah), Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 – And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
The conclusion is that the Lord was in the still small voice. How very moving and inspirational those verses are! God is certainly able to be a strong wind or an earthquake, or a fire, but that is not how He chooses to be with His people. He is an extraordinarily kind and tender God who loves us and speaks gentle words of comfort and encouragement to us.
Think about the world today. Does it speak with a still small voice? NO! It shouts with ridiculous clamor. There is a saying, “the loudest voice gets the loudest sound”; which means that the one who talks the loudest tends to dominate the conversation and therefore his ideas can receive the most consideration. It surely seems that the world knows that saying. 😊
Having balance in our lives takes work. Maintaining a good balance in the physical part of life starts with having the proper balance in our minds. It is easier to listen to the loudest voice and follow the crowd. That doesn’t take much thinking at all. But that often sets our feet on shaky ground. Deciding to do whatever it takes to plant our feet firmly on the solid ground of God’s Word takes effort and conviction. The world always tries to coerce us to follow what it says. While God simply offers His love and care to us. The choice is ours. Are we going to listen to the commotion or to the still small voice?
Once we determine the standard for our lives, we must be prepared to adhere to that standard even when we don’t feel like it. I think sometimes our feelings are our biggest enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I know our emotions are a necessary part of us and they help us in many ways. But if our feelings are allowed to run the show all the time, we will be out of balance. We need the strength of our resolve, the commitment to our goal, and the fortitude of our conviction to offset our feelings when those feelings are working against us. Like my mom always told me, “make up your mind!” Being resolved is an integral part of being and staying balanced. I might add that in some cases, we may need our emotions to tenderize us and keep us from becoming hard-hearted. So, I guess we can say that adhering to our standard is also a balance.
We can see the need to practice this key in situations like dieting and exercising. How many diets or exercise programs have people started and quit before their goal was reached? Speaking for myself, probably hundreds! It is so easy to talk ourselves out of our efforts if we allow our feelings to interfere. It takes commitment to our goal to be successful.
Another key to maintaining balance in our minds is to revisit the standard regularly. Consider this, we could not align our thinking with the Bible if we have never read it. We all understand that. No surprise there. But what if we read the Bible once a long time ago? How much worldly information would have flooded into our minds since then? Would we have enough of God’s Word in our minds to stand against the avalanche of all that worldly negativity? Unlikely. Of course, we know that even a crumb of God’s Word is stronger than any worldly rhetoric. But if we don’t have that crumb fresh and ready-to-go in our thinking, we cannot utilize it. And things will only stay fresh in our minds by revisiting them often.
So, why not strive for balance in our minds and reap the benefits of the stability, steadiness, harmony, and equality that balance brings? And why not seek the most reliable standard to base our thinking on – the sure foundation of God’s Word? It takes work, there is no doubt about that, but the rewards are enormous! Putting God first in our minds and hearts assures His response to our problems. It assures His aid to our ailments. And it assures His answers to our prayers. God is not an automatic fixer of our troubles. We must ask Him for His help. And when we do, and truly believe that He will help us, He gets right to work for our deliverance.
Hebrews 11:6 – But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
The world promises riches and fame and all that our minds could crave. But it never tells us that the cost is our soul. God promises everything that He has to give. And it doesn’t cost us anything because Jesus Christ already paid the full price for us to have it. God gives us His love, hope, peace and joy; and best of all – eternity with Him. The choice seems obvious to me!
Note to my readers: May your life always be beautifully balanced. Thanks for reading.