Living the Imbalanced Life

Between being out-of-town, my truck breaking down, and getting sick, the last 2 1/2 weeks have gotten away from me. Things should return to normal now, however. :-) With that out of the way...

The notion of a "balanced" approach to life has recently caught my attention. If you don't know what a balanced life is, it is one where no single aspect takes over your life completely. It is recommended in the same way that balanced diets are. You eat (in this case, do) a little bit of everything to help make sure nothing in life gets neglected. We go to school or work, we go to church (with a few church functions even thrown in!), we play sports and have fun time and we read our Bibles and say our prayers once or twice a week. Balanced.

But are Christians called to live a balanced life? Biblically, the answer is no.

Let me admit up front that I am very bad about this. As Paul said, "that which I want to do I don't do, and that which I hate is the very thing I do!" (Rom. 7:15). It is a difficult task, but one I will be continuing to work on, even when I fail miserably time and again.

Christians are NOT called to live a balanced life.

In fact, we are called to live very imbalanced lives. God and church and spirituality are not things to be balanced with the rest of our lives, they are to be our lives. Everything else is supposed to be balanced around God, not the other way around.

If, as Christians, we believe that we are to be like Jesus and live like He lived, why do our lives not show it? In everything (everything!) Jesus did, He had a mind for God and what His purpose was. In the gospels we constantly see Jesus going off by Himself to pray, teaching others, helping those in need, being with those who believed in Him, and taking on those who rejected Him.

When the church first began, it wasn't with occasional pot-lucks and an annual VBS. It was with living together, sharing together, eating together, praying together, and being with each other. Every. Single. Day. The church had explosive growth because the church was life for these people.

And they dared not treat it as anything less.

I am not saying quit your job, never play another sport, never have alone time, and never watch TV or play games.

I am saying look at your life and ask yourself:
Does God revolve around my life, or does my life revolve around God?

There is only one correct answer to that question. We are not called to live balanced lives. We are called to live a life completely imbalanced in favor of God, being with Him, and being with His people. It may be difficult, especially at first, and you will probably not like the things you have to give up in order to live this way.

But you will not regret it. Promise.

So live imbalanced. 

Live church. Live the Bible. Live Prayer. Live God.