Growing by Leaps and Boundaries

Do you ever feel like a tightrope walker? Is it hard to keep your balance as you juggle your family, work, and church responsibilities? How can you find adequate time to parent your children, interact with your friends, reach out to your neighbors, and develop your relationship with God? Is your life so out of balance that a blazing pace has replaced amazing grace?

Good causes clamor for our attention. Our employers expect us to work tirelessly. Counselors remind us to take care of ourselves and keep our families strong. Church leaders call us to give sacrificially and devote more time to prayer. It's hard to find a healthy balance—especially in a culture that tempts us to serve the false gods of money, entertainment, and personal pleasure.

What can we do? Is it really possible to live balanced lives in an unbalanced world? Is "balance" even the right goal?

I believe the best strategy is growing by leaps and boundaries.

A well-balanced life starts by respecting the boundary of Scripture. We must speak where the Scriptures speak and be silent where the Scriptures are silent, faithfully respecting the Bible's clear commands. Any course of action plainly prohibited by God's Word is out of bounds.

We also must respect the boundary of love. We do not live for ourselves alone; we are called to serve one another in love. For the sake of others, we must not allow anything to compromise our integrity, cripple our example, or weaken our witness. Ironically, one of the boundaries for a Christian is to exceed what society expects from us. We're called to go the extra mile, far beyond what self-interest demands.

And there are the boundaries of health and common sense. It honors God when we invest time in our families and take care of our bodies, minds, and emotions. Jesus came to give us abundant life, not to wear us down and burn us out. It's okay to say "no" to over-commitment and unreasonable demands.

And yet, while we need to have some boundaries, every Christian also needs to take some occasional leaps. If we become too cautious and careful, we will never experience the adventure of living by faith.

Spiritual growth can be a slow, time-consuming process. But at times, the Lord interrupts our carefully laid plans with out-of-the-box growth spurts. When Zacchaeus gave half his possessions to the poor, he wasn't worried about "balance"—he took a leap! When Mary anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, her generosity was motivated by extravagant devotion that could barely be contained. The apostle Paul poured himself out in unselfish service to Christ. Some might call his lifestyle unbalanced. Paul called it "fighting the good fight of faith."

I'm not sure the Christian life will ever be perfectly balanced—or should be. While remaining faithful to biblical truth, we need to keep stretching our faith and testing the limits of what's possible. If following Christ seems routine, we must be taking the wrong route. The life of faith can't always be neatly scheduled and controlled.

This year let's set some healthy boundaries so we can say "no" more wisely and "yes" more enthusiastically. But we also need to make this a "leap year"—a time to take some small steps for mankind and some giant leaps for the glory of God.