Balance

I learned long ago that a balanced life is impossible. We want to have our cake and eat it too! And so, we work full time, we have babies, we raise children, we become soccer moms, we look after our aged parents, we diet, we exercise, we eat more cake, we change jobs, we move, we get a dog, we teach Sunday School… the list is endless.

All good and mostly necessary things. But as we get more and more engrossed in the busyness and chaos that is our life, we forget that we need to take time to rest, evaluate, and even prune some things.

Do you have time to drive the children to music lessons, dance, two sports plus all the parties and play dates?

Is Johnny really going to walk the dog twice a day?

Are you truly able to serve on that board of directors right now?

Am I actually getting my money out of that gym membership?

Richard Swenson’s books on margin explain that we have to have room in our lives to 1) be still and hear God speak; and 2) manage the unexpected - whether it be good or bad!

Think of your life as a pie, with each piece taken up by something: family, God and church, activities, etc. If you end up filling up your entire pie, there will be nothing left to serve!

And so, without margin, or an extra pie slice, what do you do when you have to cope with sickness, loss or grief? We stifle it and it comes out in other ways that are harmful to ourselves and others.

Without financial margin, how do you pay for that out of town funeral you didn’t expect to have to attend? What happens when Suzie needs braces? What if you lose your job? Do you have 6 months of wages in your savings? Are you actively paying off debt? Or are you charging trips and cars and expecting to get to that loan one day down the road?

How do you make time for the good celebrations, such as welcoming babies and other such milestones? Sure, we squeeze these things in, but we either don’t enjoy them as we should, sacrificing the thing for which we were created: community. We are meant to live in community.

Do you feel lonely? Are you struggling with frustration? You might want to take a good hard look at your schedule. Not week to week. Not one or two late nights or overtime shifts. Look larger - at the bigger picture and life patterns you’ve set up for yourself.

Are they healthy? Is there enough change that you don’t feel stagnant? Or is there so much activity and change that you score off the charts in online stress tests?

We can’t all go away for a month at a time, especially to a Hawaii'an island. But we can be careful as to how we slice our pie, so that, when all is said and done, we have more than just crumbs on the table.