James
1:1-8 (NASB) 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you
encounter various trials, 3 knowing
that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing. 5 But if any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without
reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But
he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the
surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For
that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being
a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV) There is a time for everything, and a season
for every activity under the heavens: 2 a
time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down
and a time to build, 4 a time
to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn
and a time to dance, 5 a time
to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a
time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and
a time to throw away, 7 a time
to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
I’m
not sure when it dawned on me – whether it was during a Bible study on this
familiar passage from Ecclesiastes or when I took a nose dive while skiing -
but I realized life is a balancing act. Our lives often seem to be made up of
push-pull forces: the push to demand the best of ourselves and others, and the
pull to accept others and ourselves as they/we are.
It
has been pointed out that the problem with the advice “to be yourself” is that
each of us is a whole committee of selves. There is a civic self, a parental
self, a financial self, a religious self, a professional self, a literary self,
an active self, a reflective self, a fearful self, and a courageous self, and
each self is a rugged individualist.
How
do we maintain our balance amid the push and pull of life around us and within
us? The answer to that question, of course, is not easy. I simply want us to
remember that an answer is possible, and indeed probable because balance is
part of the work of faith in our life.
The
Greek word for “endurance” means more than grimly bearing up under hard times.
It is both an attitude and an action. Endurance is the key to maintaining our
balance. Balance comes when we can resist the competing pressures within and
without and focus on God’s call to our life. This one overriding commitment to
hear and to answer God’s call in the whole of our life yields a result that is
whole and balanced, complete, and lacking in nothing.
“Imagine
what it is like when the competing desires have learned to respect one another,
to settle for partial satisfaction for the sake of the whole. Now the competing
parts become resources on which we can draw. There is calmness, confidence, and
a certainty that amounts to courage. This is the life of call and conviction
(Wayne Oates).”
From
a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 18, 1986
©
Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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