Balance; an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.
To all the mamas out there…. I know I’m not the only one who’s been carrying a perfectly folded pile of laundry through the house only to trip over a toy left in the middle of the floor, losing my balance and there goes that nicely folded laundry all over the floor. Not only do I have to re-fold the laundry, it throws me into a tizzy and adds one more task to my to do list.
This is exactly how I feel when Christ isn’t the center of my life. When I’m depending on the wrong things to hold me upright my balance is uneven and eventually I will fall.
Have you ever tried a pistol squat? It’s a one legged squat that really test the strength of your core, stabilizing muscles, and the entire leg from glutes to ankle. If you don’t have that strength you might make it down but you won’t make it back up. It’s the same way when we depend on ourselves for strength instead of Christ. Christ strength is the only way we can remain upright, providing for us that steady balance. That is why having a Christ centered life is so important. A life that is focused upon a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. At the core of every human decision is a motivation. Some people are motivated by the quest of pleasure. Center their entire lives on a goal, a job, or even their families. These are not wrong in themselves; however, that which we center our lives on can become our God and when we do that we will quickly find messes in our lives just like that laundry all over the floor.
The human heart was designed for worship, and if it does not worship God, it will worship something else. If we are not Christ centered, we will be centered on something else. Followers of Christ who center their lives on him start to become more like him. They talk about him, think about him, and scheme to spend more time with him. They choose to obey him out of love and honor for their Lord, not out of obligation or fear of being caught in sin. The greatest desire of Christ centered believers is to please him and grow and be more like him. In Philippians 3:10 Paul says “ I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” The chief aim of a Christ centered life is to glorify God.
No person has ever lived a perfect life except Jesus. Even those who deeply desire a Christ centered life will stumble, fall, sin, and make fleshly decisions in moments of weakness. But a Christ centered person cannot endure living in disharmony with God and quickly confess those convictions and are restore to fellowship with him. This process of living in continual harmony with God is called sanctification. It’s a lifelong process by which God makes us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29)
Similar to our fitness journeys. We don’t get fit the moment we lift a dumbbell, step foot on a treadmill, or eat a carrot instead of those tasty potato chips. It takes time, it takes commitment, it is a process. But we must trust the process, and when we look in the mirror and start to see results, it motivates us to keep pushing, to keep working hard and giving it our all. The same goes for our spiritual walk. This week remember what Galatians 6:9 says, “ and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
If we keep this focus, those moments of off-balance will not throw us into a tizzy, instead we will stand up, dust off our knees and persevere to the next task.
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