Category Archives: God’s plans for us

Balancing Act

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My grandson Micah was recently gifted with something I’d never seen before: a balancing bike. It resembles a small two-wheeler but has no pedals and relies on push-power to move.

Although Micah is only two, he took to it immediately and has learned to sail down the length of his driveway without taking a tumble. He shoves off, then lifts his feet, and whoosh, down he goes, managing the tricky art of balancing. At some point he’ll want a traditional bike with pedal-power, but for now he and his wheels are inseparable.

Parents find themselves coaching their young children to learn several other balance-related maneuvers too, the first of which is learning to sit up at about 6 months. After that it’s walking, pumping a swing, rollerblading, ice skating, and others, all needing balancing expertise.

Certain kids take to balancing naturally (like Micah) while others need prolonged assistance and encouragement. After children master the physical art of balancing (say, their pre-teen years), they’re ready for the much harder task of balancing their lives. For some, even that comes easily, but the rest of us struggle, wobbling or even crashing completely once in a while.

And that’s where God comes in.

Children don’t need him to hold the seat of a two-wheeler or run alongside, because he’s given that assignment to parents. His balance-assistance is for grown-ups, since we’re the ones so often doing it poorly by ourselves.

Years ago The Tonight Show’s host, Johnny Carson, invited a plate-spinning comedian to perform one of those chaotic demonstrations we all love, but this performer was absolutely the best. He kept a dozen plates spinning atop wiggly sticks while balancing three more on his forehead, nose, and chin.

Surely he’d had a triple-espresso before coming on stage. His body was a blur as he leapt back and forth along the sticks, rescuing some just seconds before they threatened to crash to the floor. He was a balancing aficionado.

Of course this isn’t what God means when he asks us to bring balance to our lives. But plate-spinning mania is often the way we feel day-to-day while trying to meet our varied commitments. So what do we do?

We follow Micah’s example, tackling one balancing act at a time. If he’d started with a balancing bike, a pedal bike, and a mountain bike all at once, he’d have been in for some nasty road rash. The same goes for spinning plates. Few is preferable to frenetic, and with the first broken plate, back-pedaling is our only solution.

All of us have limits on what we can accomplish, limited time, energy, money, motivation, skills. But if we let God hand us exactly what he wants us to balance, he’ll never let us tip out of balance. After that, if we add any “plates” against his advice, it won’t be long before we’ll need a broom, a dust pan, and a revised balancing-plan from the Lord.

“Letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

Time-Out

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Watching sports on TV has never been an interest of mine, probably because I didn’t take time to learn the rules. I do remember watching the Chicago Blackhawks play hockey and won’t soon forget the fight I saw between two players. A referee quickly intervened, and the result was an official time-out for one of the players. I suppose that’s the NHL’s version of counting to 10, but no one wants to be forced to sit quietly while everyone else is still in the game.

Little children can relate. When mommy says, “Stop that behavior or you’ll have to have a time-out,” a two year old knows she means business. If he continues to disobey, he ends up in the time-out chair. During this confinement, toddlers and hockey players agree: two minutes is an eternity!

Little Jaxon, grandson of my friend Lois, recently found himself in a time-out. Although he cooperated with his sentence, a photo record (taken via Skype) depicts his struggle to wait out the two minutes.

Hockey players, children, and all of us share the frustration of forced time-outs, but believe it or not, God makes good use of them. He doesn’t always use them as discipline (toddler-style) or punishment (hockey-style) but often makes us sit still so he can work at setting up good plans for us. Unfortunately, none of his time-outs fit into two minutes. They’ve been known to last for weeks, months, or even years.

When that happens, it helps if we try to see things from God’s perspective. A seemingly interminable time-out is but a nano-second to him. He works long-range, is a God for the long-haul, and concerns himself with both the long-and-short of our lives.

When we find ourselves in time-out, we can be content if we’ll recognize that leaving too soon means stepping out from under God’s protective guidance about whatever it is we “just can’t wait” for.

We can prematurely terminate our time-out for something as trivial as an impulsive purchase or as serious as choosing the wrong marriage partner. Though staying in the wait-zone longer than two minutes is distasteful, moving forward when all indications are to “stay put” is like eating a beautiful steak before it’s been cooked.

But that’s not all.

When little Jaxon had completed his two minutes, he was given the pleasure of his mommy’s long-awaited time-in, accompanied by a hug and kiss of approval and love. If we bolt out ahead of God, we not only miss out on his plans, we lose the feel-good approval that comes when we hear, “Now is the time.”

When we let him decide our wait is over, all sorts of lovely surprises happen. That’s because while we were sitting in time-out, he was busy setting up the invisible specifics. And when he says, “Time-in!” we can be sure that whatever follows next will be worth the wait.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8-9)

Be prepared.

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Sleep was hard to come by last night. The forest crickets outside seemed extra loud, and the wall clock was doing a click-click instead of a tick-tick. I tried not to keep checking the glowing-green digital hours as they passed, but if the mind can’t be quieted, the body won’t rest.

When I asked myself, “What are you worried about?” my brain flooded with answers. Of greatest concern was an upcoming trip. Running through a mental check list in the dark, I couldn’t remember if I had or hadn’t tended to certain duties. Had I even written them down? And if so, where were they? Maybe on misplaced Post-it notes?

No one can sleep with a pounding heart, so the only thing to do was get up and make the list. Surely I’d drift off quickly after that, once everything was out of my head and inked on a hard copy.

Traveling produces anxiety for two reasons: (1) worry about forgetting something important (like my passport… again); (2) not having a travel companion to share preparations and second-guess me (formerly Nate).

Some people refuse to go anywhere because of this kind of pre-travel stress. I totally get that. But whether we like to travel or not, there’s one trip all of us will be required to make eventually, the one from this world to the next. When I think of the extensive planning for a journey from one earthly place to another (including mind-wrestling the details during the night), I wonder if I’ve taken the same care with my off-the-earth trip.

Maybe because that seems distant with ample time to prep, I’m not stressed right now. I’ve never lost a night’s sleep worrying about it. But really, why haven’t I?

Christ Jesus will be waiting for me at the other end of that supernatural travel day, so being ready is critical. Scripture says he’ll welcome me with open arms, but it also says he’ll have a few questions for me on topics like idle words, insincere motives, hidden sins. Will I have prepared well enough for all that?

The answer is yes.

The only preparation needed will have been my alignment with Jesus before I stand in front of him, followed by having kept short accounts concerning my sins and faults. Once forgiven, always forgiven, and that’s his rule, not mine.

It’s possible I might lose some more sleep over my upcoming trip, but because I believe the words of the Bible, I know I won’t lose one wink of it wondering if I’ve made adequate preparations for my journey to Jesus.

Jesus… “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” (Jude 1:24)