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When my daughter was three, we took her to a pediatric functional medicine specialist. She had a rash on her face for as long as we could remember we used topical treatments and accused every food group she interacted with but we couldn’t stop the rash. It was incredibly frustrating! The pediatrician took one look at the rash, suggested a specific strain of probiotic and the rash was gone in a week. A week! Although the recovery appeared miraculous after all our striving it was simply the resolution of a gut imbalance, her gut not being in balance was the root issue.
Balance such a common word yet often incredibly misunderstood we are complex creatures as designed by God! For my daughter, it was as simple as meeting a doctor that understood the complexities of gut health in children. I am not sure many of us, especially wives and mothers understand the term balance as intended. For many, balance means doing it all and not allowing anything to fall off your plate. You stack all the things higher and higher as you precariously wobble and toil, snapping at those closest to you, leaving you emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually barren you loudly proclaim, “I have found balance!” Or is that just me?
By the grace of God, I am a recovering balance addict. I still fail more than most to unload the heavy self-imposed burdens I heap higher and higher as I strive to live to the standards I create.
Yet Jesus said
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
Healing is required but not where the problem manifests, healing is needed in our heart.
True balance is not filing every second or saying yes to all the things in all the seasons, the balance is when we strip away those things that distract us from the race marked for us and trust in Jesus. High-level runners do not run in street clothes they know it hinders their performance. Yet our modern lives are filled with opportunities to ignore our connection with our creator and instead focus on an irrational concept of balance.
Although I tend to use the NKJV or NIV version of the Bible the richness of these two verses in Amplified is worth the extra time reading, even reading twice for good measure.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, 2 [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity], who for the joy [of accomplishing the goal] set before Him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [revealing His deity, His authority, and the completion of His work].
Hebrews 12:1-2 Amplified
Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice on the Cross for me. Forgive me for being distracted and make me new this day. Help me to seek a biblically founded and balanced life and rebuke the false concept of worldly balance which keeps me from you. Show me the things I need to strip away to grow my faith and avoid the pitfalls of society. Remind me all my days that my needs can and will be met through you. Heavenly Father, strengthen my faith, steady my heart, and let me run with endurance the race that is set before me. All the glory, forever and ever, Amen.