The Balance Beams

Picture a tightrope walker, walking between two buildings.  The only thing between her and death is a thin cable.  The wind is strong, and she must struggle to keep her balance.
But this is no ordinary person. She is a trained professional, familiar with the tricks of the trade.  In her hands, she carries a large, flexible pole.  Because of its length, it helps her to keep balanced.  She knows that the higher and more ecarious the wire, the longer and more balanced the pole needs to be.
To walk by faith is almost as precarious as walking a tightrope. It is important to keep our balance in life as we are buffeted by inner and outer pressures. We, too, must keep our balance in the wild winds of life. 
The secret to keep both sides balanced.  We do this not by cutting one side short, but by building up the smaller side.  Usually we have a tendency to favor one side over the other. That is why we need to be constantly extending our faith into other areas of our personality.
In faith matters, we usually have four different balancing beams.
1.  The perception balance. 
This balance beam has to do with the way we come to understand the world around us.
Some people are more intellectually inclined. They tend to see all thing about faith as an intellectual exercise.  In their faith, rational intention based on knowledge leads inevitably to proper action.  Life is a logic puzzle to be solved,  which then leads to the discovery of truth and our true path. While this approach is often the best one,  the intellectually inclined often fail to take into account the place for emotion and intuition.
Others are more emotionally inclined. They tend to go with their feelings and intuition, relying on God to lead them through feelings and impressions. While this can also happen at time, it fails to take into consideration that feelings lie, and that our emotions are just as defective as our reason. 
Balanced is not achieved by worrying over being too emotional, nor is it reached by becoming anti-intellectual. People of faith need to celebrate God, even while seeking to understand.  Neither head nor heart will lead us right all the time.
This balance can be related to the Word and the Spirit of God.  Anthanasius called the Word and the Spirit 'the two hands of God." We perceive the  written Word mainly through our intellectual faculties.  Biblical exegesis and critical theological studies sharpen our understanding of What God has revealed in the past.  The Spirit speaks to us mainly through the subjective impressions of the heart. As we seek for answers with our minds, we feel we have reached certainty in our heart. As we feel the leading of the Spirit, we critically test it against the Word.  Together they lead us into understanding what God says to us.
2.  The action balance.
To this has to do with the development of inner and outer habits. We call these Submission and Witness.
Inner habits--the 'habits of the heart"--are the regular rituals we use to connect to the center core of the faith.  They include things like prayer,  fasting,  regular worship, silence, solitude and Bible study.  These regular habits keep us grounded in submission, piety, and integrity.
Submissive Christians know how to keep still. They do not have to be in charge but are willing to wait for God to speak.
Outer habits are the way we interact with the world around us.  They are the pre-rehearsed responses that get us through life.  When develop the habits of reaching out and doing when we see a need,  of loving people who are unloved, and of forgiving those who hurt us. 
Action-oriented Christians  want to get up and do something when they see a need  They cannot sit still for long, but want to get their bodies involved in serving God. 
But action without obedience is dangerous.  Peter, at Christ's arrest took immediate action, resulting the cutting off an innocent man's ear!   Unless we learn to stop and listen to God in humility and silence, it easy for us to lose our way.
3.  The Community  balance. 
This has to do with our relationship to ourselves and others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it this way "Let he who will not be alone fear being in community. Let he who will not be in community fear being alone."  People of faith need to seek out people who share their faith, but they should also take time for aloneness and silence.
Self awareness is necessary for developing personal integrity and self-control  As we define ourselves in relationship with God, we are able to stand up against peer pressure and the distractions of the world.
Community awareness reminds us of our need for other people.  There is an old African proverb that says we never become a person until we are in community with other people.  We need others to support us at all times.
4.  The time  balance. 
This has to o with our sense of time-- past, present and future.
Living as people of God in the present means looking backward through tradition and forward with hope and expectation.  To be stuck in the past or lost in the future turns us away from being mindful of current realities.  There is nothing wrong with the dreams of the future or time-honored traditions, as long as we reach out in both directions.
Four balance beams means stretching out in eight different directions--knowledge, emotions, action, submission, solitude,  community, heritage and hope.

Where do you fit in the matrix?  Where do you need  the most balance?
Next time, I'll offer a tool to help you discover your spiritual balance.