“Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:8 NIV
“Here’s how God says life works: give it – find it; keep it – lose it!”
My thoughts today are about a “balanced life.”
Life is often a balancing act – between earning and spending, between home and office, between family and friends, between spouse and children, between work and play, between rest and recreation, between reason and emotion, between laughter and tears, between triumph and struggle, between God and man, and between spiritual and natural. Get the idea? Life is a balancing act, and for yours and others’ harmony and happiness you will have to become good at doing that.
Balancing your life is not about always having equal parts. No one would suggest that the things I just mentioned are equal to one another. That’s what makes it a little complicated. I always thought of the concept of balance as pictured by a butcher’s scale, a half-pound on one side counterbalanced by a half-pound on the other.
I am fascinated with jugglers and their dexterity of hand and eye coordination. Juggling three or more objects of equal size and shape, such as yellow tennis balls, is one thing. Do you feel like your life is like that? No, that’s not what life is like, as challenging as that might seem. Imagine this: juggling multiple objects of vastly different sizes, shapes, and weights – like a basketball, a golf ball, a dinner plate, and a chain saw (not running of course!). That’s more similar to what life feels like sometimes (and the chain saw is running!).
I suggest for your consideration that balance is more like a recipe – requiring the right mix of the right ingredients in their right measure and each blended at the right time. Life, nor any slice of time and season, ever seems to afford equal parts of everything. That could be overwhelming, even unmanageable. Life really is about finding the right mix and out of a diversity of often competing things. A balanced life is about learning how to turn competing, maybe conflicting, things into being complementary. How is the mix of your life? Anything out of balance? Much of that is solved with clarity about purpose and priorities. See Matthew 6:33 NLT. Balance is not static; it is dynamic, in need of continuing readjustment and rebalancing the mix.
Today’s verse is about balance really – “freely you have received; freely also give” – advocating a lifestyle of balance between what you are given and what you give. You might at first think that giving is the hardest part but probably as many people struggle with receiving, without needing to have earned what is offered them. Are you a better giver, or receiver? Those are not always equal, but they need to be proportional. You have received; you have to give.
Our daughter, Lori, captured this truth succinctly on her Facebook Wall this morning, “Give it – find it; keep it – lose it!” The Bible explains that’s how life works, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:24-25 NIV. Greed and generosity: opposite responses in life with very opposite results! Which would best describe you and what you are experiencing everyday?
My prayer for you today is to receive graciously and to give generously.