Balancing Act




I hate it when my washing machine spins out of balance. The clunk, clunk of wet jeans slung to one side of the metal tub, the banging of the washer against the dryer. I've trained myself to rush into the laundry room at the first hint of trouble to redistribute the load. My mother once warned me that out-of-balance washing machines could self-destruct if left unattended. While I don't know exactly how this might happen, the clunk-clunk tells me it can't be good.

I was surprised to come home from work one day to find my bread machine upside down on the kitchen floor. The dough spewed out, the machine unplugged (thankfully) from its capitulation over the end of the counter. There were no warning labels on the bread machine telling me to watch for imbalance, nothing to hint this could ever happen. We examined the machine and found one little rubber pad missing from its base. When the machine started kneading the heavy dough, this slight imbalance allowed it to spin out of control.

My life does the same if I'm not careful. It's easy to get so engrossed in work that I neglect my family. I can get so wound up in family affairs that my work suffers. A good book can keep me from my housework. I can get so busy with the problems of this world that I skip my time with God.

I read a tract once that described our life as a three-legged-stool. While this image is powerful, my life has more than three legs. It's important for me to keep spiritually strong by daily Bible reading and prayer, physically strong with regular exercise and a healthy diet, emotionally strong by balancing work and family, intellectually challenged by continual learning and developing my gifts and talents, and finally just allowing a little time for fun and recreation. In balance, life is worth living. Out of balance, life is filled with disharmony and unhappiness.

When I load the soiled clothes into my washing machine, I put the heaviest items in first. I load the dirty jeans and then the socks and colored T-shirts. There seems to be more stability in the process if I do it this way. In my life things work better if I start my day with time in prayer and Bible reading. It's the biggest thing in my life and somehow it stabilizes the rest of my day.

Is your life in balance?