The essential gift of balance

Walking through life requires balance.
 
Think about balance....such a gift...such an essential quality for our functioning.  Without balance we couldn't walk or stand. Provided we are not suffering from an inner ear disorder, balance is usually easily achieved with little thought or intention. There are other times when we need to be more actively involved in maintaining our stability... as when we are perched on a ladder or a balance beam.  Some folks seem to have an unshakeable balance point ... others, like me, will waver and tilt a while ...then feel stabilized...at least for a moment.  (Fear has a significant impact upon gaining that stability!)

Anybody who has learned how to ride a bike knows how to recognize that moment of "aaahhh....there's the balance."  It feels like the vehicle has settled into a groove ...  and once it is there, the rider can shift the attention to speed and turns... the momentum of moving sustains the balance.

Can you remember your early bike riding days?

You may or may not have had training wheels, but I would guess you can recall the effort it took, initially, to discover the balance point.  Then, you were off!  And most folks would agree, once you learn to ride a bike, you simply won't forget how to do it! 

Today's reading from 2 Peter reminds us of faith's power to ground us.  Through faith in Christ, we can sustain balance and stabilty in our life and in all that we are, all that we do, as we prepare for the Lord's coming. 

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.


Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 Peter 3:11-18

Truth be told, some days are more challenging than others.  Situations, relationships, or our own spiritual, psychological or emotional disorder may threaten our equilibrium.  We may need to exert extra effort to find our groove and regain our balance.  However, we have the love of Christ on our side.  God is always beckoning to us, even grasping our wavering, teetering souls saying:  Fear not...through me you can be upright and unshakeable! 

It's like riding a bike..... once you learn...

Pause...take a breath...be in Christ...aahhhhh there it is!  Now, off you go!

If you can't say something nice.......

Amazing!  Scripture again has plucked memory's heartstring and stimulated a lesson from my childhood.  The lesson for today takes me back to a treasured classic. 

Bambi, the Walt Disney movie was first released in 1942, so it was around before I was born. I probably saw it initially when I was 4 or 5 years old.... before that my folks probably wouldn't have taken me to the movie theater.  I can still mist up at the sound of the young fawn crying out:  Mama, Mama! when the hunters take the doe.  I can recall the humble adoration of the yearling in the presence of the patriarch of the herd, Bambi's father.  And of course I still smile at the emergence of young love...in fact, the term "twitterpated" still has all sorts of pleasant connotations for my nearly sixty year old heart.

So that's the walk down the lane... but the stopping point for me today is with Thumper, the rabbit.

(Amazing how the Lord invites us to pause on the path!)

That little guy had the gift/burden of speaking out .... often rather boldly.   But every time he begins to speak uncharitably, his mother intervenes with gentle but firm words:  Thumper, what did your father tell you this morning?  And he says, with the innocence of childhood (although he hasn't really gotten the hang of the lesson):  "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all!"  (click on the link to hear him do his best!)

Wisdom comes to me today about the enduring impact of words...  I suppose I could focus upon the scripture:  for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned....

But I am feeling more childlike today.... so I think I will simply pray with Thumper!  The message is similar, right?  Gee, I wonder if Thumper ever learned to speak the truth in love?

Learn from the elders

At a recent conference we were discussing the responses to our current financial and political dilemmas.  The facilitator reminded us that when folks who have survived the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor Day and World War II hear people now in their 30's or 40's or 50's  lamenting today's challenges, they say something like "You haven't seen anything yet." 

Wow... that is hard to believe.  I don't know about you, but nearly every person I know has "seen" resources and possibilities dissolve from life's radar screen in the past few years.... and these elders tell me "you really haven't seen anything yet"????? 

What can we learn from those who lived through those years?  Of course, I know that not everybody did make it.  I know of far too many cases of collapsed lives and relationships, of devestation and death that occurred between 1929 and 1945.  However, I also am blessed and encouraged by stories told by some of my aging friends and relations who survived and at a deep level, even thrived.  The majority of them point to faith as the balm for their parched existence during those years. 

When each day was characterized by "slim pickin's"  and when families knew the meaning of "waste not, want not", folks appreciated the power of "making do..."  Whatever was available was shared.... and for people of faith, the sharing unfolded following the age old prayer:  For what we are about to receive, we give thanks.  People may snigger at our elders who saved every piece of string, every dripping from the bacon, every rubber band.....  but they knew that nothing given should be discounted...that there is no economic or material artesian well. 

I give thanks today for the testimony of people who walked the earth during the middle of the 20th century and who are still modeling abundant gratitude in the midst of scarcity.   Perhaps we are only in the first leg of the worldwide economic crisis... perhaps the financial, political and environmental shockwaves will continue to reverberate.

Faith opens up new hope, though.  We know that somewhere deep within life's surface there is water flowing...   even in the dryest regions of life where we are parched and barren, "something new" is being given.

When the poor and needy seek water,

and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.


I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.


I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
so that all may see and know,
all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

                                           Isaiah 24: 17-20

I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that this was the kind of reading that filled the hearts and minds of the survivors of the Great Depression and World War II.  I have a feeling that reminding one another of whatever they did have was the key to their community's vitality.  I have a feeling that there is still much that we can learn from them.... because, perhaps, we truly have seen "nothing" yet.

Less is more.

My beloved mentor has a way of gently (but oh so firmly) calling me to a life of simplicity.  It really doesn't matter whether the issue is activities, relationships, food portions or household goods -- Her basic priniciple is "less is more!" 

I thought of her words this morning as I prayed with the selection from Isaiah 24.  Everything in the world has a temporary nature.  Everything is changing in all times and in all places.  There is nothing that we can do, ultimately, to prevent the approach of death and deterioration of everything material....including our environment and ourselves. 

Faith invites us to proclaim that if every "thing" as we know it disintegrates, God remains.  At the core of all that is, there is the Love of God, and sometimes things simply do need to be reduced to the last "straw" of existence in order for that core to be our primary focus. 

Back to my mentor.....  her life is characterized by numerous stories of life's vacillation.  There was a time, when she was around fifty or so, when her life as she knew it came apart.  Her household and many of her relationships dissolved.   She was reduced to her life's ground zero.  She tells of those years with humble confidence (con-fide in Latin means "with faith") ... not with arrogance or self-righteousness.  Her point is always, that everything can disappear, and God remains. 

Now she is in her 80's.  She is the manifestation of beautiful simplicity.  Her wealth is rooted in her faith, and every word from her tongue, indeed, every glance from her eye, overflows with abundant love, and hope.  Her joy abides, even in challenging, even unhappy situations.  

Less is more.  Glory be to God!