Exposing the Myth of Balance

“Anyone who ever did anything meaningful for God was unbalanced. Seriously. They were all a bit off their rocker. “

By Danielle Strickland | Twitter: @djstrickland
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Many years ago I had a revelation about balance.

You know about the pressure to achieve balance in our lives right? I’m sure you must. It’s like balance is the new religion. Somehow, somebody, somewhere conceived of this idea called “balance” that means our lives are an equilibrium of perfection. An equal distribution of time to intake of resource. The clean house, educated working mother, with beautifully, well-behaved kids–-oh and don’t forget ministry and date nights and a clean car (whoops, make that a mini-van). Missing any of those essential pieces would throw our delicate balance into a frenzy of disproportionate consequences-–like say … unbalance. Nooooo, not that! What would my mother think? What about my neighbours!

Back from Africa

Years ago I came back from a mission trip to famine-struck Malawi as a young Christian and an immature teen–I went a little crazy. I lost it. I started giving all my money away and helped homeless people on the street–and I started pointing out the obvious obsession our culture had with comsumming more things … At one point my mother (who is mostly right about things) got a little fed up of my “extreme” behavior and attitude and said, “You know what you need, young lady? You need some balance!”

What I Really Need

That’s what got me thinking about what I really did need in my life and how to aim for it.

So, I looked in Scripture for where God said, “Blessed are the balanced for theirs is Oprah happiness,” but I couldn’t’ find it. Actually, the very opposite was true–Jesus spoke and lived a completely unbalanced life. All the prophets were off their rockers and not just a few fries short of a happy meal, if you know what I mean.

And all the early church folks–dreams, visions, eating unclean foods, jails, beatings, hanging out with beggars and riff raff. You get the idea?

Then I took a small journey through more recent church history. And here is one thing I learned. Anyone who ever did anything meaningful for God was unbalanced. Seriously. They were all a bit off their rocker. Give it some thought. Find a radical reformer, a prayerful saint, a holy prophet–name them in any denomination and you will find someone who was over the edge. Unbalanced. A little unglued. And that’s when it struck me: I’m aiming for the wrong thing. I’m aiming for balance (which is, I’m convinced, a myth that doesn’t really exist anyway) when I should be aiming for unbalance. This will not only make my life a lot easier (much more organic!) but it will also help me to live the life God actually calls me to.

Relief.

Exposing the balance myth is a fun thing to do. Because once it’s exposed it’s like everyone gets to breathe out. The elephant just isn’t that bad looking.

So, I aim for a surrendered, abandoned, sold-out life that tries its best to look like Jesus. To listen to God and then do what He says. Sometimes that means I hang out with an almost two-year-old who is a kamikaze little warrior; other times it means flying around the world and speaking when I least feel like it. On occasion it means going out for a date with my husband. Often it means visiting massage parlours and making friends with people who are only going to add to the chaos of my life. But always it means my life is rich and full and my house is often a mess and the laundry gets left undone and my kids have to adjust to a lot more time-changes than normal. And, well, it’s a little messy … unbalanced. And that’s when I realize I’ve achieved my goal.

May God bless you with the ability to expose the myth of balance and live a different way.

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Thoughts? We’d love to hear what you think.

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About Danielle
Danielle serves Jesus as the Corps Officer of Crossroads Community in Edmonton, Canada. Her passion is social justice, including establishing human trafficking response teams in local situations and giving leadership to the global team for the Stop The Traffik campaign. Danielle speaks and teaches around the world and has written several books: Just Imagine: the social justice agenda, Challenging Evil, and newly released this year, The Liberating Truth: How Jesus Empowers Women. Danielle is married and has two sons.

Image credit: Upside Down, by Johnny Jet