A Labyrinthine Journey

Sorry I haven’t been on lately, a lot of things involved with moving, including having to find new routines. To get back into things, here is the monthly newsletter article I wrote yesterday.

How’s your balance lately? Mine isn’t all that great at the moment. It takes me a while to read the symptoms, but whenever I find myself weary, stressed out and feeling lost, I can usually find something that is out of balance. I’m not too surprised with everything turned upside down in our lives. So my spiritual journey right now is to restore that sense of richness to my life.

Richness? Isn’t balance a more precarious endeavor? I used to see balance as if we are walking on the edge of a very thin line. We had to be afraid of extremes and wary of any changes to the delicate nature of our living. There was always an underlying uncertainty about whether or not we were living our lives the right way. We had to watch every step we took with fear and judgment. If we didn’t we fell and we were unsure if we would be able to get up again.

Then my image of balance changed. It was all part of that seeking to discover what Jesus meant about the abundant life. An important element of that abundance was the elimination of fear and a greater appreciation of the certainty of the presence of God’s grace and love. The knife’s-edge view of balance would not allow that. The balanced life of God is not about fear but about fullness. I began to visualize the image of animals grazing in a field. If they all ate in the same corner of the pasture the grass would be ruined and they would become ill. The herder desires healthy animals and a field that would serve for a long time. So the grazers would be led to enjoy the fullness of the field. They would explore the different flavors of grass and grain as the field is used in a balanced way.

Seeking balance in our own lives has that same kind of feel to it. God did not mean for us to become limited in what is life to us. Life is much more enjoyable and rich when we find ways to play, work, and rest. We need to learn how to be alone well and how to be with others well. Our vision of where we live must includes the neighbors who live within feet, yards, and miles of us as well as expanding to the edges and ends of this globe that God loves. We need to learn to truly listen to others as well as how to speak plainly with integrity and compassion. We need to grow in being people of prayer and being people who serve. And how much richer can life be when we can enjoy the beauty of silence, of song, of laughter and even of tears.

This is not easy, but it more promising to seek to enrich life with God’s boundless love than to risk failure without it. Where do you need to stretch out in the pasture God is leading you to live in?