Let's get a little balance here...

Have you ever felt a little 'off-balance' in your life? You might not know it, but that little niggling can be the beginning of a change for you. Some of us experience being a little 'off-balance' because we have done or said things that actually create an imbalance in our lives. We get too intent on having our own way, making our own point, or finding a solution before we know the real problem, and we will have an imbalance for sure! We get ahead of what God is doing in and around us, stumbling over others and ourselves in the process, and we will experience imbalance. We can be so focused on doing something we think is going to be good for everyone, but we forget to include anyone else in the planning! Balance is a hard thing, but let me assure you, imbalance is harder!

The Eternal prefers those who do good, but He condemns those who plot evil. Doing what is wrong keeps everyone off balance and insecure, but those who do right will never be uprooted. (Proverbs 12:2-3)

We don't have to be doing 'evil things' to find an imbalance in our lives. We can be engaged in perfectly good activities and find we just get a little too far ahead of God, or out of kilter with the others God has placed in our lives. It has been very hard working full-time at home during the quarantine period, taking full-time care of an aging parent, and still trying to take care of myself in the process. Balance is hard to find when our world gets set into an unplanned 'imbalance' all of a sudden, isn't it? I have had to slow down to give mom time so she doesn't get frustrated. I have had to repeat things to her ten times over before she even gets remotely close to understanding why I am not at work, but working in front of the computer in the den. It is hard to help her maintain 'balance' when her world isn't as it normally is, too. She cannot get her hair or pedicure done at the salon, go to the store to just stroll in her wheelchair while I shop, or even have as many 'in-person' visits from the hospice nurse. Balance is elusive when you have little to no control over what can cause imbalance in your life, is it not?

The promise of God to us today is that our 'balance' need not be affected by the things that we cannot control because we have a solid 'rooting' in him. We have been given stability when other things around us seem to be very unstable. We cannot, nor should we wish otherwise, control the circumstances that attempt to steal our balance. We need to give that control of balance over to Christ and he will help us maintain perfect balance. If you have experienced peace when everything around you is spinning out of control, then you have experienced balance. If you have gone through rough places, wondering what would come next in your finances, but seen every bill paid on time, then you might just have experienced God's 'provision' at a time when balance was not always 'equal' with income and outflow in your checking account. I know don't how God does that 'balancing' thing in my life sometimes, but I know one thing for sure - when I place my life squarely in the middle of his presence and just remain content to stay right there, balance is not only achieved, it is maintained! Just sayin!