The Balancing Act

“We are just so busy.  “We don’t have time.  “I just can’t balance it all.

Have you ever said anything that sounds like that?  Chances are we all have because we’re all trying to “do it all.  If you’re not there now, you probably have been or will be.  Our lives are busy.  It’s the culture we live in.  Whether you have kids or not, there is always something else to do and somewhere to be.  Let’s be honest: We are consumed with the idea that bigger is better, more is better, and faster is better.

As that lifestyle surrounds us, we adopt it and project it onto others.  This mindset is destroying us.  We are exhausted, spread too thin, yet the hamster wheel is still spinning, and we are gasping for breath.

There are many resources available that give us tips to find the balance.

(Get the visual here–you, in the middle of a see-saw, trying to keep it level, never allowing either side to dip lower than the other.  See it?)

The visual alone makes my heart rate increase, so of course, like many of you, I am willing to read every blog, book, or website that helps me keep up my balancing act.

All of this to say, you will not find that here.  Here we offer you transparency and honesty.

So here you go…

1. The hamster wheel just keeps going unless you stop running and get off.
2. There is no such thing as perfect balance in this life because we are not perfect.

Be still.  Stop trying to do everything you can to achieve perfection.  In Psalm 46, God tells us to be still.  He instructs us to rest in the fact that He is in control.  It is a simple instruction, clearly stated, yet every time I read it, I recall the anger I felt when Nike came out with the slogan “Just do it.  As humans, we have a difficult time imagining ourselves capable of being still, much less finding the time to do it.

Really, if it were so easy to “just do it wouldn’t everyone “do it?  But that’s the point—maybe a bad comparison, but same point.  One reason this slogan was so successful for Nike is because it was a simple, direct instruction yet required extreme self-discipline. Being still is against our natural grain.  It does not just happen, in fact, it is impossible if we are living in the flesh.
My encouragement for you and me is to get off the hamster wheel and stop trying to balance it all.  Let God lead and find peace in that.  Be still.  Just do it.