Heartprints

Balance – Perhaps Our Greatest Weapon!

Lately, many of my friends and family have come up against challenges in their lives that have thrown them for a loop. I would say in many cases a downward spiral. The challenges could be from a work situation, a personal health scare, marriage crisis, kid challenge, money, friend or family breakdown or personal sin issue. In any case it’s caused their lives to be unbalanced. And of course, when your lives are unbalanced it’s amazing how much it affects everything else. It’s like life is a boat and as the boat goes to one side everything tends to fall towards it. The ideal situation for a boat is to be on a steady and smooth course.


Lately, many of my friends and family have come up against challenges in their lives that have thrown them for a loop. I would say in many cases a downward spiral. The challenges could be from a work situation, a personal health scare, marriage crisis, kid challenge, money, friend or family breakdown or personal sin issue. In any case it’s caused their lives to be unbalanced. And of course, when your lives are unbalanced it’s amazing how much it affects everything else. It’s like life is a boat and as the boat goes to one side everything tends to fall towards it. The ideal situation for a boat is to be on a steady and smooth course.

Amy and I have been so unbalanced before that we were dang near upside down. I’m sure many readers can relate. It’s simply part of life! So what causes imbalance? Is it overscheduling or overcommitting to the things that take away from the priorities of life? Or perhaps it’s the opposite and it’s under-scheduling and under-committing to those same priorities in life. In any case it’s an imbalance that’s so dad-gum easy to fall into. Adam and Eve started the trend in the Garden and it’s been part of everyone who has ever lived except of course Jesus and even then He had to deal with it when He was on the Cross. Jesus took on everyone’s imbalance and balanced it out.
Good examples of things that get us quickly unbalanced include work, self-image or self-interests and of course personal gain. The quickest way to unbalance – SIN! Let Satan get hold of you and brother he will mess you up. Unbalance is where he lives and where he wants you to be. He wants your boat to tip over and capsize! He’ll turn what seems like a good balance of things into a complete lopsided mess. He’s good at it and he won’t stop until your sideways trying to hold on for dear life.
What can get us balanced? It’s not as simple as you might think. It takes a big picture look at your life and carefully lining up all of the things that seem to be good and then comparing those with all of the things that are great. The things that should stick out as great should be your relationship with God, your marriage, your Family, your church, your finances and your health. Those great things are balancers. The only problem with them is that they all require hard work and discipline to maintain. Many people with great balance have fallen in their attempt to maintain it. Balance is perhaps our greatest weapon against Satan.
So with all of this said, I have to say that I pray for Balance every day. I ask God to help me maintain my balancers. I ask Him to keep Satan from sitting on the balance scale of life and from sinking my boat. I know that I will have unbalance in my life from time to time I just pray that as I get older I see more and more balance. I pray that I can teach my kids that balance and smooth sailing is hard work and requires careful navigation but that it can be done. I pray that my friends and family who are dealing with unbalance in their lives right now are able to get the balance back in their lives.
Thank you Jesus for balancing us all!

Brian Holt was called into and served in children's ministry for over 20 years. Brian had the privilege to lead in children's ministries ranging from mega-church to plant church size. Brian changed roles in his church and now serves as the Care Pastor at Rock Creek Church in Prosper, Texas overseeing the Care and Support ministries of the church. Brian has been married to his lovely wife Amy for over 24 years and they have 5 amazing kids. Brian's passion is to see every man, woman and child fall in love with Jesus and become one of his devout followers, transforming their lives in the process to be more like Him everyday.