Pastor's Corner

October, 2004

During one of my sermons, I talked about the importance of having a balanced life. Too often we run into extremes. This is particularly true for Christians, who with good intentions try to do their best, but end up running their lives aground. In the process, they lose their joy and feel despair. The danger of living in extremes is that we are too close to the edge. One slip, and we’ll fall off the cliff.

Recently, I came across some examples that can help us understand this danger. I’ll mention a couple just to let you chew on them. First example, loving and learning from the Bible, but not worshipping it. One time I heard a speaker telling his audience that they shouldn’t put coffee on top of a bible because it shows disrespect. Now, I’m not saying we should ruin the bible in any form or shape, which is the other extreme we should avoid. I’d rather see you make notes or draw pictures to help you understand or remind you of the words of God than to keep it squeaky clean. Another example is being active and involved in the local church, but not getting neurotic about attending every meeting. There are always people who ask, “Is attending all the church meetings a gauge of spirituality?” The answer is, “Of course not!” On the other hand, we shouldn’t be going to the other extreme thinking that we don’t need to attend worship because worship is a private matter or that we don’t need to fellowship with other Christians because we only need God. We need to value what God values. He loves to see His people getting together in public worship and fellowshipping so that the world may learn from us how to worship and see from us the genuine care and love we have for each other.

We have to ask God to give us the wisdom to live a balanced life. The reality is that the more balanced it is, the more tension it will create. Imagine the force you have to withhold while being pulled from both sides of extreme. One time someone asked St. Augustine about the secret of living the Christian life. He replied, “Love God, and do as you please.” Now, that’s balance. In response to this, Ken Gire, the author of The Reflective Life wrote this, “The thought of that is both liberating and confining. Liberating because it means we are free to do whatever we want. Confining because it means our love for God sets the boundaries of that freedom.” A balanced Christian takes God seriously, but does not take himself all that seriously. It means times of discipline should be balanced with times of relaxation, fun and laughter. This kind of balance is not only wholesome, but is healthy. Life is not frowns. Life is beautiful!

Before I sign off, I would like to share with you that a life with Christ will change your perspective from temporal to eternal. Only through viewing Life from an eternal perspective will we find true meaning in this temporal dwelling.

Pastor Larry