We fool ourselves if we think balance means giving equal attention to everything in our lives. Balance only happens in dynamic tension. Balance is giving not equal but appropriate attention to each of the various categories of your life . . . each will get the attention and resources necessary to keep it moving toward an intentional outcome.
The ordinary days of life far outnumber the extraordinary ones. That can get discouraging. But as we look at the lives in the Bible, we see the same pattern. Thankfully, they were normal like us.
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Like us, the biblical lives show years of routine interrupted by occasion moments of excitement. Thankfully, we see God at work in the ordinary day just as much as in the extraordinary. David’s fight with Goliath is the perfect example.
It can also happen with you.
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Not long ago I walked down a country road and saw the spring leaves popping from the trees. Literally a week earlier the branches had nothing. One week! It got me to thinking.
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All the potential for the trees to leaf lay hidden, dormant all winter, until something inside the trees awakened them from sleep. Life was there all the time, hiding behind death, until something cued it to resurrect.
If this is how the earth responds to the stimulus of spring every year, how much more potential lay dormant—awaiting the moment God removes the effects of fallen humanity from our planet? Talk about an Earth Day!
The Bible uses this truth to encourage us in our struggles.
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Have you thought where you’ll be buried? The place where someone chooses to get buried is always significant.
(Photo: The Kidron Valley with olives trees and graves. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
But in Israel, a burial place often exposed one’s faith. The tombs beside the Kidron Valley bear witness to this truth.
Each one offers a connection to resurrection.
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Is this true of you? Whenever I find myself with a free moment, I feel compelled to fill it with something productive. Because I hate to waste time, I fill it with activity and justify it as productivity.
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But I’m learning that constant movement doesn’t always represent efficiency. It could, moreover, represent just the opposite.
As with every other part of the human experience, Jesus remains our model of efficiency. But His life—even before the cross—was no easy walk:
No person was ever more qualified to do it all, and yet Jesus took life in the fast lane in stride.
What was His secret?
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Have you noticed? We have no problem choosing to trust God with the things for which we already trust Him. But then another situation shows up. And suddenly, it’s like starting over.
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In those times, we’re a lot like Asa, one of the few godly kings of Judah. He once trusted the Lord in a battle in the Shephelah of Judah and defeated an Ethiopian who came against him with an army a million strong (2 Chronicles 14).
But Asa’s greatest test came in an area that hit closer to home—literally. That’s where God tests us as well, isn’t it?
Sometimes it seems like we’re always starting over in our trust of God. Here’s why.
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Years ago Cathy and I traveled with another couple to a park near their hometown. After we arrived, they pointed to an old store and said: “The ice cream there is great!” So we bought some. Bad idea.
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After our first few licks, Cathy and I looked at each other with the same unenthusiastic expression. Great ice cream? Hardly. It tastes like chemicals.
Then it hit me. What was “great” to the other couple had nothing to do with the ice cream they lapped with gusto. They simply savored the childhood memory of getting ice cream at that store.
Nostalgia flavors the facts. On one hand, that’s a good thing. It serves us great memories.
But on the other hand, it also offers significant risks.
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Problems never just go away or take care of themselves. The Lord will patiently wait and permit the circumstances to compel us to do what we should have done at the beginning.
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Remember Jacob? Before his sons could purchase any more grain for the famine, he was required to bring the very person Jacob had refused to release into God’s control—his youngest son, Benjamin. In Jacob’s own words, “My son shall not go down with you” (Gen. 42:38).
However, like straws loaded on a camel’s back, day after parched day of the famine finally took their toll. It’s the same with us.
But the weight on our shoulders isn’t ours to bear.
Our problems keep us in a corner until we turn to God.
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When we find ourselves dissatisfied with what God has us doing, it could reveal that we’ve confused our significance in serving God with our significance to God.
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I’ve been there just like you have. When we get frustrated that our lives seem to accomplish nothing or that our ministry bears little fruit, we need to review our motives for life and ministry. Rather than merely measure productivity and activity, we need to value the “little things,” such as intentions, faithfulness, and faith.
Our relationship with God remains more important to Him than our ministry for Him.
Here’s why.
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