The Balancing Act: To Be or To Do

The tight rope walker must keep his focus and balance at ever step.  When stepping forward their foot must be centered, which takes concentration to avoid surrounding distractions.  They often carry a long pole or other objects, so that they can help to shift the weight from one side to the other while walking forward.  With each step the tight rope walker makes adjustments in their shifting weight, while never taking their focus off of the goal of reaching the other side.  If they fail to adjust their weight or take their eye off of the goal they will not merely miss the other side, they will fall to their painful destruction or death.

Life for many Christians, especially leaders, is a lot like this.  I am seeing, the older I get and the more I study, that balance is not always an easy thing to keep.  We must continually work at keeping balance.  One of the greatest areas of balance that people, leaders in particular, struggle with is the balance of being and doing.   In order to serve God's purpose and will within our lives we need both.  However, for many of us we struggle to find balance between the two.

This is not a new problem.  Our church has been studying the people who met Jesus this summer, and recently I was challenged by how many approached Jesus asking, "what must I (we) do to inherit eternal life."  Their minds were not away from desiring the goal of heaven, and in fact they were very focused on that goal.  However, they were looking at what "they" had to do.

 To the crowd that followed Jesus after the Feeding of the Five-Thousand, Jesus challenged them to stop seeking fulfillment in the temporary and put faith fully in Him.  To the Rich Man, who was already keeping the commands of God, Jesus challenged him to sell it all, help the poor, and follow.  In both of these instances Jesus took people from a place of what "we must do", to a place of giving up on self to follow and rely upon Him fully.

I think many of us in leadership easily get caught up in what I call "Doing Theology", some might even take it to the point of "Works Theology."  Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that we think in order to be saved that we must do some great act.  I think that for most Evangelicals we know that faith saves us.  However, after we are saved many of us forget that we are to continually be with Jesus in order to do His work in the world.  We often live like we must do something great after coming to salvation, in order to prove that we are sincere in our following of Christ.

This "Doing Theology" may not develop overnight.  We may even find balance in life at times.  However, we feel the pressures of board members, church attendees, and even worse other pastors or leaders who are looking for measurable results.  Many churches promote the idea of faith and trust in Christ alone, while turning then to attendance numbers, finances, or other measurements that we often have little or no control over.  We easily get entangled in a web of thinking that success is only in numbers or money, and not merely in serving God faithfully where we are called. 

This can often drive us to do more and more.  In doing we can fill our time and calendars up quite quickly.  However, the results are that we find little benefit or blessing.  Sometimes we do the wrong things, the less important things that God wants us to.  Sometimes we are not really spending time with God to hear what he wants, and we do what we or others think is important.  Instead we are trying to measure up to some idea of success that we have built up, or worse yet that others have built up for us.   When we miss the goals that we or others have set for success it creates a dangerous spiral.  We try harder, and find ourselves wearing and burning out in own own power.

There are some who may struggle with not doing enough, because they simply want to spend time alone with God.  They may want to hole themselves up in their holy sanctuary and stay only in prayer. They remain in Bible study for hours each day, but never take the words into action in the world around them.  They never get out and help anyone, but instead simply want to "be with God".  This can put us off balance in the opposite way.   However, my experience is that many in ministry are not really struggling with too much time with God.  Most struggle to find enough time alone with God, in order to better serve Him.

Jesus said to "Go and make disciples of all nations"(Mt. 28:19).  I have heard this best described: "as you are going".  To me part of this means that we don't stop praying, seeking, and growing in our own lives in order to serve.  Instead, serving flows out of our own prayer, seeking, and growth.   We have to have the balance of "Being in Christ" and "Serving Christ." 

 I think sometimes today we (myself included) have to beware of putting the cart before the horse, in our growing servant oriented world.  Thinking we can get people involved with serving and lead them to Christ seems very noble, but if they never find Christ then we have missed our main goal.  Worse yet, in our own lives if doing can overshadow our own relationship with God.  We can do many good and even great things before people.   However, serving the work of the Kingdom, and forfeiting our own personal soul is a danger we cannot risk.  Paul warns of this saying: "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize," (1 Co. 9:27). 

I pray that God will help us to keep balance.  I pray that on your journey with Christ that we will be filled continually with the Holy Spirit, so that we can serve in power and strength that are not our own, for the mission we serve is not our own. 

I also pray that through the rambling of my own struggle on the journey of life that God may some how bless others to know they are not alone.   It is in Christ and His strength all things are truly possible.


Blessings on the journey with Christ.

Pass God's Blessing as You Go

Matthew 10:12-13 reminds us that as we go about spreading the hope of the Kingdom of God we are to go among and be a part of the life of those we witness to. We are to pass a blessing on to the "houses we stay in." This really means a lot to us as ministers. We are invited into the fellowship of a church to be a blessing of God to the people, whom He calls us to. We should keep these words of passing God's blessings in mind, and before us always.

For some ministers this means reevaluating how we relate to those who are serving along side us, and those we are responsible for training under our direction. We are to help people grow in the way God would desire, and not lord our personal opinions or directions over people. This may mean slowing down plans in order for people to catch up. It may mean spending sleepless nights in care of those who are in need. We may be called to bless others in being faithful with our lives and witness before men in how our work ethic is lived out. There are numerous ways which God may call us to serve those we are called to serve.

We must take time evaluate ourselves, our witness, and whether we are blessing others in our ministry. The New Year offers a thought of new beginnings. I pray that we can all better serve and follow Christ in His great example.

Keep on Focus and Purpose

Most of us have probably heard of the lighthouse keeper, who was given his monthly delivery of oil to keep the light shining brightly. The lighthouse safely guided hundreds of ships around the jagged shoreline. The lighthouse keeper diligently worked to keep the glass clean, and repairing any damage. He never wanted to let the ships in need down.

The days of the month passed by, and one evening as a storm was reported to come their way, a man came to visit the keeper. The man requested a gallon of fuel to help him run the stove on his boat, it would be the only way he would be able to eat on his journey. The keeper was reluctant, but gave the request to the man. Several days later a woman came to the kind keeper in tears, and begged some fuel to heat her home. You see at home she had a very sick child and without heat in the home the child would likely die. Two more requests of life threatening need pulled at the light keepers heart, and he was driven to help with more fuel.

Late in the month a raging storm arose. The skies were dark and the waves crashed against the rocks below the light. In the darkest part of the storm the keeper ran out of fuel for the light. Soon a ship carrying two hundred people came near the shore. The Captain could not see the rocks near the shore. The light house keeper sat helpless and in tears as he watched the ship crash on the shore and most of the people perished in the rough waves.

The light keeper had one main job. Keep the light lit. However, many things pulled at the keeper. In the end he did not have the fuel to do the job, because he had forgotten the main purpose and focus of his work.

Many people in our world today do the same thing. We stretch ourselves between many things that may seem important and good at the time, yet we are spread thin and ineffective to carry out the purpose God may have given us to do. I see this in ministers and in church goers where ever I have been. Life is hard to balance, and someone will always want our time. Many of the things we could be doing may even be good things to do.

Recently I have preached on Gideon, who God told to reduce the number of men from over twenty thousand to three hundred. The first order God gave was to send anyone home who was afraid or worried about their families at home. God understands that we need focus, and knew men divided in their task would fall prey to failing in the mission. I also have started a series in Corinthians, in which Paul says, "For I resolved to no nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

Family, friends, work, hobbies, sports, and more will pull at our lives. We may even have requests of other ministries across town, or across the world. We do need to help with missions needs, yet we must keep a strong balance. While helping with other good things may be a blessing for the moment, if it causes us to drop our focus, our help, our responsibility in the ministry God has called us to we still fail in meeting our purpose. It is the idea that we sacrifice the great by doing the good.

In my 16 years of working around churches I have watched ministers put their needed work aside for ministries that are good, and miss meeting the needs within their own mission field. I have watched church attenders go across town to be involved in studies, and yet question ministers at the church they call home as to why studies can't grow here. I have seen people focus so much on good works that they never find Jesus Christ as Lord, but fall prey to a "works" religion. I have watched people wanting to support family who have put church aside to be with their children in every way, and in the end they can not figure out why those kids are not growing in the church or in Christ.

We all are light house keepers of the Hope and Word of Jesus Christ. We all need to keep our focus on the mission for our lives. I am not advocating that we stop missions support, or stop seeking to do good. What I am saying is that we can do these special things from time to time, but that we must never forget the main purpose that God give each of us. You see what ever your gift is in your church, it is needed. I guarantee you are missed when you are not there. More important, an opportunity for reaching a lost soul may be missed, because you are stretched to thin or maybe missing in action.

- Keep on the Journey with Jesus today.