A quick google search will find you 2,880 different “world records” for different balancing acts. You’ll find thousands of desperate attempts at fame such as: “longest time on balance beam while also singing and playing the ukulele” (3 minutes 35 seconds) or “most hockey pucks balanced on the forehead” (31) and even “longest time balancing a running lawnmower on chin” (3 minutes 34 seconds). Many of the attempts at balancing are rather pathetic, but a few are actually quite impressive. Some people have even become world famous for their incredible feats of balance. Philippe Petit, for example, wowed onlookers by crossing between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
You may not have ever found yourself with a ridiculous amount of hockey pucks on your forehead or shaken in fear of tipping off the high wire and falling to your death, but have you ever had more to do than time to do it? Have you ever had so many things vying for your attention that you didn’t know which way to turn? So many responsibilities and passions that you didn’t know where to place your concentration? It’s easy for your life to begin to feel like an intricately complicated balancing act far more difficult than holding up a hockey puck because you are trying to balance all the different aspects of your life all of which are unique in their size, weight, and shape. How are you supposed to hold up your work, family life, church involvement, time spent with God, hobbies, duties at home, and maintain your social life all at the same time?
That was the question I recently heard asked, “how are you to balance all of the different parts of your life?” How much do you put into your school work or how much effort do you put into your job in order to do it well, but not get lost in it and to still have time for God? I’ve been there with all the different parts of my life precariously propped up by my varying amounts of time and effort, everything carefully stacked upon each other. The problem was that if a little bit of effort was diverted somewhere else or time spent on the wrong thing that perfect balance that was holding everything up would be thrown off and everything would fall crashing down in a mess causing a domino effect of destruction. So what are we to do?
Stop the Balancing Act
Stop trying to get a perfect balance and exhausting yourself holding everything up. You can’t, at least not for long. The answer isn’t to divide up all you have and put 60% towards God, 20% towards work, 10% towards church, 5% into entertainment, and 5% into double checking your math to make sure you have all your percents. The Bible doesn’t speak in those terms. The Bible doesn’t divide our lives up like that as if each part is autonomous of the others. Instead, God says things like, “Seek first the Kingdom of God” and “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, mind, and soul.” We are to go all in on God. 100% of all that we have, all of our time, all of our effort, all of our love, all of our mind, and all of our body go to God. That’s the perfect balance. It all goes to Him.
Our lives are not intended to be lived out as a conglomerate of individual self-sustained parts. If you are a Christian, you do not get to have different lives: church life, work life, social life, and family life. You have one life and all of those seemingly separate aspects of your life are all linked together. And all of them should be driven by your relationship with God. When you give God all that you have, all of those different parts come together to form the whole. That is when they all can be sustained.
When God is in control of all we have we can give everything else the attention that it needs. It isn’t as though we now don’t go to work, or take care of our homes, or spend time with family, but In giving everything to God He will then direct the rest of our lives. The Bible says that if we seek first the kingdom of God He will take care of everything else.
Colossians 3:23 states whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. This breaks down the separation of life categories we tend to create. If we give God 100%, that means how we function at school and work, how we interact with friends and family, what we do at church and how we serve all flow out of our relationship with God. Now instead of struggling through trying to decide for yourself how to operate in all these areas, you ask God what He would have you do in those situations. He is in control of it all and seeks to be glorified in every aspect of your life, so you can bet that He will direct you through it all.
Think of those old school balances with a plate to hold weights on either side. As you add more weight to one plate, the other goes up, take weight from one and the other goes down. Now imagine one of those with enough plates to represent each area of your life. You can carefully distribute all that you have evenly trying to keep any from falling, desperate to keep everything in the air and not leave one neglected. But as things change and grow you will constantly have to be adjusting. You will constantly have to be adding to and taking away to keep everything in the air. Or, instead, you could put all the weight, all the time, all the efforts, all of who you are squarely in the middle of the plate for God. There will be no fear of anything moving, no fear of anything crashing to destruction because everything is being held up by what you have given to God.
God calls us to a lot. He has a lot for us to do and to consider. If you try to figure it all out on your own you will fail, you will not be able to hold everything up in perfect balance indefinitely. So do not even try, instead give it all to God. Not because you want Him to uphold all those other areas of your life. Not so he can help you succeed at work, school, and church. Give it all to Him because He is worth it. He already gave it all to you.