Balance
From Jerry Sittser’s book ‘the Will of God as a Way of Life”:
Balance is . . . a concept we must understand in relation to multiple callings. Balance means establishing proper priorities, choosing to do what is most important rather than what is most urgent, and organizing our lives around our central commitments.
It does not take a genius to discern what good order in life should look like. In his Confessions Augustine argued that nothing in the world is inherently evil. Evil is simply a distortion of the good, a disordering of life. . . . .Success is a good thing but not if it comes at the expense of family, friendship, and community. Evil puts last things first and first things last. It debases what is pure and exalts what is base. Evil thrives by distorting proper priorities.
Augustine argued that we should cherish and use God’s gifts, but not put them above God himself.
“We may seek all things, O Lord, but in seeking them we must not deviate from your law. The life we live here is open to temptation by reason of a certain measure and harmony between our own splendors and all these beautiful things of a lower degree. . . . Sin gains entrance through these and similar good things when we turn to them with immoderate desire, since they are the lowest kind of goods and we thereby turn away from the better and the higher: from yourself, O Lord our God, and your truth and your law.4
For example, we would not find fault with a man who restores old cars as a hobby. If anything we would probably watch him work his craft with great interest and awe. But if he neglected his wife and children to pursue his love of antique cars, we would conclude that his life is not ordered properly. Restoring old cars is not as important as caring for family. Likewise, we may applaud a scholar for her diligent study of classical philosophy, but if she ignored friends and family for the sake of writing still another book, we would say that her life lacks balance.
As a historian, I have studied the biographies of many great religious leaders, so I am well aware of the price they had to pay to fulfill their calling. I admire these leaders, although I do not always like what they sacrificed in order to succeed. John Wesley, for example, was unusually disciplined and dedicated. This eighteenth century evangelist presided over a spiritual revolution that changed England forever. He traveled over a quarter million miles on horseback and preached over forty thousand sermons to reach people for Christ. He died penniless because he gave all his money away. He was largely responsible for starting the Great Awakening in England. Yet his marriage was not happy and his friendships suffered because he was so unbalanced. ~Jerry Sittser, the Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 2000,2004), 194-195 (continued)
