June 17, 2011 Written by Ruth Novales
Since I’m on a quest to find balance, I decided I’d take a look around and see what other people have to say about it. I really liked what Allen White (Adult Discipleship Pastor at Brookwood Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina at the time of writing) wrote in his blog about living a balanced life. He said that:
“… a balanced life would be:
Rested, not exhausted
Calm, not rushed
Focused, not scattered
Purposeful, not pointless
Confident, not insecure
Healthy, not harried
Gaining wisdom, not repeating mistakes
Closer to God, not growing distant.
Most of us are balancing more than two things. When we go from two objects to three objects or more, we have suddenly gone from balancing to juggling. Isn’t that how we feel? Every day we have to keep a certain number of balls up in the air or plates spinning. If we drop a ball, then it seems like the whole thing will come crashing down.
So, a balanced life is not about giving equal time and energy to every aspect of your life. Some parts need more and some need less. Balance truly is giving every part what it needs when it needs it and having a little left over for ourselves. A balanced life relies on focus.”
Furthermore, Pastor Allen wrote me that, "Balance is very difficult to achieve. When you think about it, you can’t balance equal amounts of time and energy. Obviously, we need eight hours of sleep. So, if balance is giving eight hours to something, then you can only balance two more things, since there are only 24 hours in a day. Maybe our goal should be an integrated life rather than a balanced life."
Hmmm... Think about it... An integrated life. I like that!
(This post originally appeared in Ruth's blog, On The Balance Beam.)
