Just what is ‘balance’ in a spiritual community? The word ‘balance’ is not always perceived as a good word. For those who embrace ‘balance,’ they may have in their minds the need for security, keeping away from extremes or playing by the book. In a spiritual community there is a lot of validity in this outlook.However, others when they hear the word ‘balance’ they shudder. For them, when they hear the word ‘balance,’ they thinking BORING! These people are the ones who will say if you want to get things done in this world you will have to take risks and maybe even be perceived as an extremist. Jesus was hated by the ‘balanced’ religious leaders of the day because he was viewed as extreme.
Now, the proponents of ‘balance’ as well as the opposers each have a valid viewpoint and to complicate things, GOD created us all differently. We are all wired to react in different ways to different situations and one person’s balance is another person’s extreme.
In a spiritual community (church) many people see the Christian life simply in terms of their journey with GOD. They spend time in prayer and study, they gather at church as long as it helps them with their connection with GOD. They are quite happy not to get involved in the lives of others. If we were to look at Christian history, a logical extension of this kind of lopsided Christianity was found in the monastic period. Then, life was spent in prayer and study, but the truth concerning evangelism, being the salt and light in our culture, and providing input and solutions to many of the problems the world was facing was conveniently forgotten. The irony is that many of those who practiced this monasticism have given us great insights on topics such as solitude, prayer, personal discipline, but one has to wonder if they failed in fulfilling the Great Commission?
Without question our relationship with GOD is highly important, yet it appears that our faith must always be connected to one another. Jesus talked about loving GOD with all our heart, soul and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. So does worship lead to work? Does prayer lead to preaching? Does contemplation lead to community? The Christian life is not just about GOD, but it is about people as well! Where is the balance? The church is about worshiping GOD and loving people and from my personal experience the latter area is the hardest of all. Learning to forgive, and receive forgiveness, loving and serving and encouraging one another is what real Christianity is all about. Where is the balance?
Thoughts?
7 comments:
Most people who really succeed (at least in my eyes) are usually quite unbalanced and quite eccentric. Whether they are professinoal snowboarders, published writers, rockstars, or whatever - they have taken big risky eccentric journey's that usually grates on most balanced people.
I personally tend to react negatively to the word balance" In my experience it has often been used as an argument for a middle of the road, elevator music approach to life/faith. I much prefer the word tension.
I disagree.
As exciting as it may to jump on the 'we're extreme for Jesus' wagon, I think there is a place for balance.
The bible offers a number of examples where things were taken 'to the extreme' in a negative sense (thechurch of Corinth for one).
I understand your point, that introspection should ultimately turn us outward to our community, but without a strong foundation, and continued time spent in the word and study, we risk losing the plot, and becoming 'extremists' in the most negative sense of the word.
M
In her book, Plan B, Anne Lamott says of community, "when we spend too much time alone we tend to get a little strange." I love this quote. The point is, we need community. We need to live a life which gives us some alone time with God but we also need to continually strive to live in community with other broken, sinful people. This is true balance. Adriano10 says that we need a rel'shp with God first and then a rel'shp between people but what does this catch phrase really mean?! In my experience, this is one in the same thing. We learn more about God, His character, and his Kingdom when we are in communion with other people...otherwise, we tend to 'get a little strange' when left to our own devices.
Hey All
Thanks for the input...
But let me respond to Fishy...
Thanks for findig it strange that that I would say that the religious leaders were "balanced" and that Jesus was extreme.
We obviously understand the word differently. For instance...you interpreted the scales in the picture as a symbol (one of many) for justice...I did not, they are scales that are balanced.
As for the others...I am with you whole heartedly Steve on the issue that GOD and people are a "both/and."
I will have more on that later, but now, it is supper time.
I must say that I "get" what filletofsoul is saying. The religious leaders in Jesus time balanced? It doesn't seem that way to me. They seemed rather extreme to the legalism side, and extremely uncompassionate towards their fellow man, don't you think? And maybe Jesus was "EXTREMELY" balanced. So very wonderfully balanced to an extreme, that we should aspire to be like Him. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's". Balance. "Love the Lord your God...and love your neighbour as yourself." Balance.
But, of course, He was also extreme. He told someone not even to bury his dad, but to follow Him right away. He told a rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give it to the poor.
So, like so many things in life, Jesus is an enigma. I think that if we try to put our Christian lives in a box, such as "we must be Balanced", or "we must be Extreme", we are missing the point. I think we all need balance as we follow the Lord to extremes.
Christianity doesn't always make "sense". It sometimes seems contradictory. For example (and way off topic), the subject of predestination and free will. Which is right? Both maybe??? Is it possible that maybe there are mysteries that only God understands the balance between?
Thanks Highlander for keeping to the point!
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