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Is Balance a Kind of Success?

July 27th, 2007 | blogtipping, faith and work

Work Research FoundationWhile researching the field of faith and work, I stumbled on this article over at the Work Research Foundation’s Comment Magazine. David Bentall just posting some interesting thoughts about business, balance, and learning to live.

He says that finding success and living a balanced life aren’t mutually exclusive–as long as you define success appropriately.

Consider this quote from the article:

..the critical first step to living a life of balance is deciding that it is more important than other measures of “success.” If the pursuit of power, prestige, position, possessions, or even pleasure are your primary goals, then they will dominate your life. If having these things are more important to you than balance, then they will win. Thirty years ago, I made a commitment that these pursuits would not be permitted to rule my life. It is one of the most important decisions I have ever made.

This seems so obvious, but I had never thought about success in this way. The key to living a balanced life is constantly remembering that balance is my goal.

So here’s the question.

Is “balance” a Christian value? Or a neoplatonic value?


Viewing 15 Comments

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    Ooohh, Christian value!

    Jesus is God. Jesus is man.

    God is one. God is three.

    God is sovereign. Man has free will.

    I could go on and on. There are so many area in the Christian life where two seemingly inconsistent or contrasting ideas are held in perfect tension, perfect balance.

    Pray, as another instance. God knows before the foundation of the world what He will do, but He asks--commands even--men to pray and is moved by those prayers.

    Enough said for now.

    Becky
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    Marcus

    I'm laughing as I type this comment because I posted on the very same article just today. Kudos to Comment magazine for very effective viral marketing and a compelling topic.

    However, while I'm grateful for David Bentall's testimony, I've never found the idea of balance as a good framework to pursue life in God.... I came to a slightly different conclusion. I hope I'm not being critical or proud but I'd like to offer a different way to think about this.

    If you're interested, here it is -

    http://everysquareinch.blogspot.com/2007/07/liv...
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    thanks for coming by, great thoughts.

    www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org
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    I studied this topic a few years ago. I was thinking over and over again about the phrase, "I put God first, my family second, and my job third." I actually went looking for a book that would discuss how to do this. Unable to find one, I started looking for a Biblical example of the man I wanted to be as a husband and a father. They are FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. In fact, I only found two: the father of the prodigal son (a parable where the father played God's role) and Joseph, Jesus' earthly father.

    I'll cut to the chase because I ended up writing a book on this whole thing, and you can download the manuscript free on my blog page. I finally concluded that a balanced life is not Biblical. The only priority any of us should have is completely submitting our lives to Jesus and making him our number one priority. If we make pursuing a relationship with Jesus our priority then all of a sudden our marriages, relationships with our children, jobs, etc. all fall into place. It's easier said than done, but I think that trying to find the "goal" and the "balance" yourself turns out to be a hopeless pursuit.
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    Hi Marcus, It's funny - I read your post and the article and went away to think about whta it was that I really thought - the idea of balance being something of concern to me anyway. By the time I was back, I had wandered through a Sunday and several other blogs only to find that ESI posted on the same article - so, I shall leave you both the same comment.

    I think we have to accept God's definition of balance - which is, in actuallity, He, Himself (are those the right forms of the nouns? I didn't worry about this with ESI, but now I wonder....). Nothing held back but never hurried, never without resources, never lacking, never worried, never rushed, always wise, always gracious, always firm and just yet always merciful and gracious.

    To be like Christ, because He is the true representation of the Father, this, for me, is balance. How this is actually lived out - what it looks like in everyday life - I think this will look a bit different in each person's life because each person is fearfully and wonderfully made - like snow flakes, no two alike. And to go with these differences in bodies and personalities, God has given different skill sets as well as different spiritual gifts and different life goals and challenges.

    So, all that to say that I think to live a balanced life is to live like Christ - to the glory of the Father.
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    Becky, your comment caught me by surprise. God himself contains paradox. At least, what seems like paradox to us little brains.
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    Great comments everyone. Thanks for the input. Like Susan, I've been thinking about this all weekend.

    I'm thinking balance works well with scarce resources. I need to balance my budget. I need to balance my use of time.

    But my life should be centered on Jesus. He's the target I'm aiming for. When I miss the target... hamartia, sin.

    When I am centered on Jesus, I balance my checkbook and my calendar with the specific goal of glorifying him.
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    Susan, you make me laugh about being nervous with your pronouns! Being an editor is more about revision than editing. A fresh set of eyes are usually much more useful than a critical set of eyes.
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    John, can you give us a link to your book? I'm not sure I've read it.
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    Here is the link. Keep in mind it was self-published a few years ago, so it is not tightly edited. You can download it here (http://highcallingblogs.com/emailstogod/?page_id=19) or purchase it on Amazon.com. They still have plenty. :)
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    which, by the way, still didn't answer the question as to whether they were correct or not!
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    Susan, if you want me to be critical... the Christian Writer's Manual of Style says, "Few matters of style have caused as much consternation to writers and editors of religious books as the capitalization of biblical and religious terms" (113). They go on to say Victorians tended to overcapitalize. To the point of Absurdity. Every major Idea received emphasis through capitalization.

    Religion editors are beginning to capitalize less and less. Capitalize names: Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and God.
    ...but not titles: almighty God,
    ...unless they are acting as names: Almighty.

    Clear as mud, right?

    But it's easier with pronouns. Don't capitalize them if you can get away with it: When God himself creates, he does so with joy.

    If a pronoun is not clearly referring to God, then you can capitalize it to help your reader.

    That said, I know writers and editors and publishers who insist that capitalization somehow indicates respect. You might point out to these people, as Zondervan's policy does, that we capitalize both God and Satan, both Churchill and Hitler.

    In short, common usage English today capitalizes names. To use an archaic, Victorian rule may appear pompous or pendantic or even simply irrelevant.
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    John, thanks for the link! That looks very readable.
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    I heard a prophetic type say once that there is no balance, as we need to be where God says we need to be. While I fully agree with the concept that our lives if totally guided by the Spirit will not require "balance", I also think we can't shrug off the idea. Obviously the church hasn't figured God out in his fullness, or we wouldn't have problems with grace vs works, sovereignty vs free will, etc. If we could know fully we wouldn't need balance, but until that day I think it is a useful idea to use. (A Victorian would write Balance then, right?)
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    Hah - I don't think I've ever been called Victorian - what a treat - much better than being a tart! I use He/Him but choose satan just because I want to remind myself that even though I must watch our carefully for him because he is very powerful and would love to do me in, he loses in the end!

    The actual question was whether in the phrase "which is, in actuality, He, Himself" - he, himself had been used corectly.

    Now, I wrote this perfectly lovely play-doh factory entry which I received no comments on at all from you - so you just need to shape up buddy boy!!

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