Balance and Responsibility III - Imbalances and how to get out ...

Wednesday, August 10, 2010. Where does imbalance occur? When we want to keep a balance, it might be a good idea to look at imbalances and how they arise. What can be reasons for imbalance?

Reasons for imbalance

There can be very good reasons for imbalance. For example, when you want to reach some important goal, you need to focus. You will not do everything with the same weight, but you will drop some things and focus on others. Also, you will probably work more than usual, since you want to make progress. Work can then develop into an imbalance: you work too much.

Imbalances can also occur when challenges or problems arise. If you are challenged in a way which surpasses your capabilities and your experiences, then you might look for solutions to deal with the emotional stress. Some of us try to balance the stress by alcohol or by eating. Somehow our body seems to search for a balance and we try to find it by using helpful substances. But this might be an illusive path. The alcohol or the food is not a real solution - the origin of the imbalance is not addressed at all and thus the solution just strengthens the imbalance, then this will lead to more alcohol or more food and a vicious circle starts to govern our life.

How to get out of imbalances?

One key step towards a balance can be a change of perspective. When we go into prayer, there are many layers of things going on. One of these layers is the “change of perspective”. Prayer leads us to God and in his presence, when we listen to his words in the Old or New Testament, our life perspective is re-calibrated. Our perspective will change. And with a different perspective we gain new power to address our challenges and to change our actions.

For myself, the fact that God wants me to act responsibly with my own life and my own body is also a strong motivation to search a balance. If I live with him, I cannot just follow particular goals. I need to follow his goals, and one of his goals is to keep me in balance within him. So, it is not an option to live imbalanced! With this, I search for solutions and the power to carry them out comes to me …

“Pray, listen and do!” These three steps appear to me key steps for getting out of imbalances of various kinds. Reading the New Testament (and the old one as well) belongs to step two, to the listening step. These stories are just amazing, and they lead us to a deep kind of balance. This balance comes from the Lord, from his support and love. He wants us to be his children. This points me to a life of play and joy, a life where the challenges given to the adults are less severe, less pressing, less insurmountable. In the world of kids there are wonders and there is the power of the parents who can make everything good. I believe that indeed God has this power and that being his children means that we we will experience a good portion of his possibilities in our own life. ... more texts