052. The Myth of Balance

… and I’ve stolen this idea from a preacher I listened to once by the name of Mark Buchanan.  The big idea in this message is that … 

Pp     Even if we’re living on God’s side of the fence, our lives are still unpredictable and unbalanced! 

Does that sound scary, --- or --- exciting,  to you?    

One thing we do know ---  the Christian life is never dull!

We’re going to read from Matthew chapter 6 verses 24 through to 34.   It’s on page 1117, right at the beginning of the New Testament – page 1117 – Matthew 6:24-34.   These are the words of Jesus.

V24   “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (mammon is an old English word for money). 

V25    Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

V26    Look at the birds of the air, for they do neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;   yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they? 

V27   Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? (if you worry enough can you grow taller?)  

V28    So why do you worry about clothing?   Consider the lilies of the field how they grow:  they neither toil  nor spin. 

V29    And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

V30     Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

V31    Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”  

V32    For after all these things the Gentiles seek.   For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  

Now here comes a really really really important verse. 

V33    But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (not all the things that we want, but all the things that we need)

V34    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.   Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

These are the words of our Lord, Jesus.  He says to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God’, or as our thought on the screen says, ‘choose God’s side of the fence’.  Then He says that ‘every day will have its own trouble’.  In other words, each day is unpredictable, unbalanced,  so don’t worry about today, don’t worry about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God knows in advance what we need and He’ll provide for us.--------  

-------   Fourteen years ago, an Australian television producer by the name of Peter Rees proposed a new idea for a television show. They would take some well-entrenched cultural beliefs, things that we’ve always thought were true, things we’ve always just accepted but never checked to see if they’re really true or not!   So the plan was that in this new TV show they would test these things to see if they had any basis in reality. The television show is called Mythbusters.   Do you know it?   The show’s team goes out week after week to test these things that everybody seems to believe, and they ask, “Is this myth busted or can we confirm it as a true fact?”    For example, the movies always show bullets going way down into the water to their target.   We believe that, but it’s just a myth!  They’ve proved that a bullet actually loses its force after about ½ metre once it goes into the water. So they tested that idea (not with live people, of course), -- and with the warning: “Don’t try this at home.” 

I began to think about this idea of busting myths, and it strikes me that the Bible is all about busting myths!    The Bible often takes beliefs that have become deeply rooted in our psyches, in our cultures, so that we begin to spout them, embrace them, but we never ask, “Has this thing we believe got any basis in reality?”

A groundbreaking book, that I’m sure probably isn’t at the top of your reading pile, is Erich Auerbach’s, ‘Mimesis’.    He makes a claim in Mimesis that the Bible constitutes a revolution in world literature.   Up until the Bible, literature presented the world the way we wish it is. When the Bible came along, It presented the world the way it really is.  It busts the myths.  --- When you think about the Old Testament prophets, much of their work was myth busting.  They came in to work mostly with the Israelites, because the children of Israel had embraced a bunch of cultural myths from the pagan nations around them.   These ideas never came from God. 

I’ve got a book called ‘Pagan Christianity’ that explores the roots of church practices and beliefs.  Many of the things that we do and teach in our churches today come directly out of paganism.  They are myths and have no place in the Christian Church.  We could spend a lot of time discussing myths and traditions and false teachings, and it’s important to not be deceived by them, but we’ll move on for now.

Here’s a popular myth of our modern day that we’re going to look at …

Pp       “If you have a little more stuff and money, your life will be easy.”

Anyone ever bought into that deal?  The Bible busts that myth, as we read in the book of Matthew earlier – as God’s children, we’re not to worry about clothes and food.  But many of us learn the hard way, don’t we?

Here’s another myth – many preachers say, “If you become a Christian and join our church, life will be perfect and you’ll be blessed with health and wealth.”    Well the Bible busts that myth too.

Jesus came mythbusting, didn’t He?    Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said … But I say to you …”  ----  Jesus says you’ve heard things from others that are half-truths, but here’s the full truth.    Jesus went on to say,  “You’ve heard it said you shouldn’t murder.”     Well, that’s a good thing but here’s the full truth – don’t even think about it.   “You’ve heard you shouldn’t commit adultery.”    That’s a good thing but here’s the full truth, don’t even think about it.   The full truth is that it’s often something in our hearts and our minds that we need to fight.

Jesus says, “So I say to you … What’s going on in your thought life, what’s going on in your heart?  That’s where the real battle is being fought.”    Jesus came mythbusting because Jesus came as an enemy of the status quo.  Jesus was actually a revolutionary figure in His day.  Jesus questioned what the church people accepted as normal.   He came along and challenged their thinking by asking,   “Is normal normal?”  --------   Jesus often says, with regard to deeply established ways of thinking, acting, believing, and attitudes,   “Enough!  You say you can’t love a Samaritan, watch Me.   You say you can’t sit down and eat with sinners.  Come on, who’s ordering the pizza?   You say you can’t touch lepers…”— mythbusting - taking the status quo and saying,  “These things you’ve been telling yourself until you’re hypnotized by them, are all a bunch of hooey. ---- Watch Me!”

So remember the title of our message?  …

Pp     THE  MYTH  OF  BALANCE

Now we’re asking the question --  Does ‘Balance’ need Mythbusting ?

So I thought, let’s do some mythbusting today and find out if the concept of “balance”  is  “confirmed or busted.”   Let’s look at a definition of balance.   

Pp      Balance  -   a point of equilibrium between two or more opposing  forces. 

‘A point of equilibrium—it’s neither going this way nor that way—between two or more opposing forces.’     So we’ve got these everyday forces wanting to push down or pull up or twist sideways, but in our lives we somehow try to find this perfect point where it all balances out. Aren’t you on the hunt for this thing called balance where you work, in your leisure, and your family, hoping that all these things will come into some lovely equal balance? ------  You know, where it all floats around nicely like a little mobile hanging up in your room? These little mobile things never clash against one another and they perfectly weigh out against each other. ( at least when there’s no wind).   Isn’t everybody looking for that perfect balance?  I hear it all the time.  I’ve often used those words:  ‘I’m just trying to live a balanced life.’    -----    I think - it’s a myth.         THE  MYTH  OF  BALANCE.

Now obviously, balance does exist in nature. If you go scuba diving, one of the things you attempt on the scuba dive is a thing called neutral buoyancy, and it’s basically the magic of balance. Neutral buoyancy is when you get to whatever depth you’re diving at and you’ve got two opposing forces working against each other. —You’ve got the weight of the water wanting to push you down to the bottom of the ocean and bury you. And you have the air that you’ve put into your tank that wants to suck you back up to the top and pop you up like a cork. You have to find the place of neutral buoyancy where the pressure pushing you down and the pressure pushing you up are perfectly balanced, and you don’t go up or down. ----  So in nature these things do exist.     The problem is that we’ve moved from this real state in nature to this unreal state in our lives where we’re trying to find a balance, a mythical balance! 

Now there are three reasons why … 

Pp     BALANCE  IS  MYTHICAL 

One is that … 

Pp   1.  Balance is impossible to sustain.    —it’s not impossible to find balance, but it’s impossible to keep it. 

The second is that … 

pp 2.  Balance is not even desirable.— that’s assuming you could keep life balanced in the first place. 

And third, …

Pp    3.  Balance is not biblical.

Let’s look at these three points.

Pp    1.   Balance is impossible to sustain.  (mobile picture)

Why is it impossible to sustain?   Well, when we actually think of balance, we think of suspended animation. (use hands showing static balance). The word ‘animation’ actually refers to life, something living. (moving hands)  ---  But this is suspended life (static hands)  - trying to get the balance right. -----  So here’s the point. We can find balance momentarily, but it actually takes more effort to keep that balance than to find the balance in the first place.  ------   For example, in a balancing act, think of two women, one balancing on the head of the other. How long do you think they can continue that?   --- And it is so fragile, so temporary.  --- So even if you find balance for awhile, it’s impossible to keep that balance for long.   -----  For that first reason alone, we should stop chasing the myth of balance.------

Do you have in your head what I call the “if-only,” and the “as-soon-as” clauses?   The “if only I had more money,” or “if only this person wasn’t in my life,’ or “if only I didn’t have this job,” or “if only I lived in that house.” Or we also say things like “As soon as I’m done with this season of my life,” or “as soon as these three weeks go by and this crazy time is over.”   Do you have ‘if-only’ and ‘as-soon-as’ clauses in your head?   If you don’t, we’d like to do a brain scan to see if there are any brains in there because seriously, that’s how we live our lives isn’t it?  —if-only, as-soon-as, if-only, as-soon-as. 

These statements can actually take on a sense of false authority when we say them can’t they?     When we say something like :  “As soon as I retire, my life will become easy!”   Any of you retired people actually find that perfect balance?    I often say to people,  “I’m running around like a chook with it’s head chopped off.”     How long are you and I going to perpetuate this delusion that our life is somehow going to get balanced?   It’s seriously hard work to get balance for just a short period of time – and – it’s impossible to stay balanced all of the time. 

Now number two.  …

Pp     Balance is not even desirable.  

The second thing is that balance is not-even-desirable. Listen to what John Ortberg writes in his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted:

“The paradigm (or the example) of balance simply doesn’t capture the sense of compelling urgency.  …   Balance lacks the idea that my life is to be given to something larger than myself.  It lacks a call to sacrifice and self-denial - the wild, risky, costly, adventurous abandon of following Jesus.”   He continues,   “Ask hungry children in Somalia if they want to help you achieve balance, and you’ll discover that they’re hoping for something more from you.    And I believe that deep down you too are hoping for something more for yourself, for your life.” ------

So even if we could find balance, would you want to keep it, stay constantly in balance?   As John Ortberg said, “The idea of balance simply doesn’t capture the sense of compelling urgency worthy of human devotion.”   So balance is not even to be desired.

Now number three…

Pp        3.   Balance is not biblical.  

The most damning criticism of this idea of balance is that it is not biblical. Can you think of one person in Scripture who lived a balanced life? 

When you think of King David, do you think, Oh, there’s a man who’s got it all together in this nice little mobile? I mean, whether that guy is fleeing for his life and living in caves or he’s ruling the kingdom, he is a man after God’s own heart, and when he loses sight of that, his life goes off the rails real quick. This is a man in hot pursuit of something, and it doesn’t  involve balance. ----

Think of Anna in the Gospel of Luke. This woman who is in her 80s is at the temple praying day and night. What would our culture say to Anna?  “Get a balanced life.”    But she’s in hot pursuit of something bigger than that. ---- “Nehemiah, come down from repairing the city wall, you’ve got to get some balance in your life.” “No, Nehemiah says, for twelve years I’m going to bust my guts getting this thing done that God’s called me to do.” ----

The Apostle Paul, does he strike you as somebody living a balanced life?

Author John Ortberg imagines a Time Management Consultant sitting down with the Apostle Paul. The consultant says, “Paul, if you look at this time chart, I think you’ll agree with me that your spiritual life is doing pretty well, but your tent making business has seriously gone downhill. This has led to some downsizing in your financial portfolio.  Let’s take a look at your time log I asked you to keep since our last meeting.”      So Paul reads out his Time Log to see how he’s going on balance.

Pp     2 Corinthians 11:24-27

“Five times I have received the forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I received a stoning, three times I was shipwrecked, for a day and night I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys and danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship through many sleepless nights, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked.”

Then John Ortberg writes, “It’s hard for me to imagine what the Time Management Consultant would say to all of this.” ----

So what am I suggesting?  Rather, what am I recommending?  Better still, what is the Bible recommending?

Pp     Pursue Magnificent Obsession

Forget balance, go for ‘magnificent obsession’. Live your life gloriously lopsided, interesting and unpredictable.  Your life will be a lot more balanced in a better way.  ------

--------   Now in conclusion, what would the mythbusters say about a swan?  Everyone sees a swan as serene, peaceful, has it all together, beautiful, graceful….

Pp   (picture of swans paddling)

If I’ve invited Jesus into my life and I’ve accepted Him as my Friend and Saviour, then to God, I’m like a swan.  A swan is beautiful!  To God, I am beautiful – you are beautiful.  We’re all especially beautiful to God when we accept Jesus as our Friend and Saviour.

Now a swan looks very beautiful and serene and at peace!

That’s the bit of the swan that everyone sees.  But what did the mythbusters see under the water?    You don’t see what’s going on under the surface do you?  Under the water, our legs are often going like the clappers too, just like the swan.  There’s some turmoil down there where no-body sees.  But we can still look great and be great on top, because, because we have peace  ---  a different kind of peace, even amidst the unbalance in our lives.

When our lives are right with God, we can have a peace and a hope that we have never known before, and when we get it, we can offer that peace and hope to others.  Today we are living in an age of turmoil, noise, and confusion, with a reckless living pace, with unanswered questions and fears about the future.  People are crying out everywhere for peace of mind. -----   Jesus says to us in John 14:27, …

Pp     John 14:27    “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

We, friends, can have that peace, And when we get it, we can pass it on to others.  In this time of uncertainty, people are worried and afraid.  They feel empty inside, and in the heart of every man and woman there is a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill. -------

  ------  So in summary, here are the three points that the mythbusters  found … 

Pp     The Myth of Balance  

1.  Balance is impossible to sustain.

2.  Balance is not even desirable.

3.  Balance is not biblical.

And always remember this sign we’ve got at the Butterfly House…

Pp      ‘Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.’

May God bless you with a wonderful unbalanced life.  

Pray

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