Our lives are made for balance
Christian life must have balance. We are not hanging on a few verses or a pet doctrine or a one-dimensional approach. Our lives are made for balance and the other side is fanaticism. Friends, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Why the need for equilibrium? Why the necessity for a set of scales?
Longevity, baby, longevity. We’re not in a sprint, folks, this is a marathon. Twenty six/odd mile runners gotta pace themselves, even the very well trained. Well, we think, “I’m going full steam ahead; I wanna burn out for Jesus.” You will.
“The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11. Time and chance? Yes time, but, impacting impingement happen to all as well. These “infringements” come in many shapes and sizes; get ready.
Obstacles in the road, bad weather conditions, injuries, ill health, or ill mental health, bad attitudes and etc. all can, and will, breach our flow from time to time. Enemies, real, self-made, or imagined, loom on the track. They impose, they intrude, they interrupt, and they invade. We gotta know how to kick them out. They have one purpose; to mess you up.
Having said all that, the metaphor of the long-racer is only a partial one. It needs a balance too. Instead, we are advancing, tortoise or hare, toward the Face of Our Father, by way of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is a chase for Revelation’s unfolding and The finished line is assured us because another ran in our name.
So, how the run? It is a seeking. Webster’s says this: “God seeks men, when he fixes his love on them, and by his Word and Spirit, and the righteousness of Christ, reclaims and recovers them from their miserable condition as sinners.” Our part is “to seek God, his name, or his face; the primary sense is to advance, to press, to drive forward.” Webster
Song of Solomon 1:4 says “draw me after you and let us run together.” NASB. Fellows, it looks like we advance in this already run-and-won race by a response — A response to what? — The drawing of our heart, the drawing of us, the drawing out with loves, “no man comes to the Father but by me,” (Christ). This kind of response runs, not ahead or behind but only toward and together with Christ. We run agreed, and in sync, and this is the challenge of the race. These are the conditions and the privilege.
We cannot dash this mysterious, gold medaled, run- and-done race in our natural strength, dudes. We can only respond, which root word means “To send back.” We are not initiators with God. We reply, answer, correspond, but we do not muster self-strength, rev-up ourselves, or blow off the docks. This is an event of patience, soul-possessing anticipation.
Here’s the problem; there are weights on us, and sin. These are hindering our patient trek. These must be retracted from us but God has to do that. Much of our life then seems as a race-preparation, but we start God’s process, day one.
Beloved, we had our capacity for response wracked and whacked, days past. All the times that we responded to someone and were exploited must be fixed — easier said than done. Sarcastic and cruel initiations of men mutilated our emotion-rooted response. Maybe, with a destroyed aptitude for appreciation, we fled away. We ran on our own. Who can heal the broken hearted, the reaction-driven affections?
“Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Awe, here is balance: grace and truth are here instead of law. The law could not heal because it was “weak through the flesh.” “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4. This is grace and truth.
That imposing, commanding, demanding modus-operandi is nullified forever.
In closing, the righteousness of a race-won-and-finished is added to us and is in you and me. Our focus on trying to follow law is over. It was nailed to His cross, taken out of the way. That imposing, commanding, demanding modus-operandi is nullified forever. It was not made for a righteous man, but applies to those without.