It's All About the Balance Beam

[HKHaugan]

It’s All About the Balance Beam

       A perfect triangle, three equilateral lines, three equal Persons in perfect balance working to bring that balance in our mind, heart and spirit through our relationship with the Lord Jesus.  So, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2Cor.13:14).” 

       That was how the last chapter ended.  However, there is always a beginning happening when that verse is put into action.  The theme is balance.  Grace, love and fellowship in perfect balance.                  

        If you’ve ever watched a gymnastics competition, one event features a balance beam 16.4 feet long, 4 inches wide, and 4.1 feet from the floor.  A gymnast does flips, turns and a dance on it.  Visualize the precision demanded as the gymnast performs. They are all alone on that very slender 4 inch-wide beam. It takes strength, skill, determination, faith in the process and its goal and I’m sure a controlled fear.  Imagine the hours of practice and coaching to maneuver that confining surface.  For a period of time the gymnast is limited to a local area of 787.2 square inches of room in playing out his and her identities. 

       Now convert that to how local the human body is in comparison to the actual universe we live in, the country, town, house and body we live in as well.  The body we have is limited to the space it covers in any given moment.  As individuals we are a very local people.  Our bodies can only occupy a little space wherever we are.  That locality wherever we are and whoever we are with will either be a positive or negative influence.  The balance we have within will determine how we react to surrounding circumstances.  We will either be light or darkness, outward or withdrawn, offer balance or imbalance where we are.  That’s precisely why Jesus made it His purpose to live locally in the daily confines we experience.  It was in seeking out individuals and small groups that He saw His mission as personal and relational, the goal being to bring spiritual balance to and in the minds, hearts and spirits of everyone He met.  He was not interested in aiming at big demonstrations of power stirring up division and controversy with advance advertising and publicity agents.  He was basically a one-on-one heart-to-heart person touching the hearts of others with His.

       As images of God, we have a mind, a heart and a spirit needing balance.  We are individuals living a daily life in which balance of the three is necessary.  Sin throws us out of balance.  The mind thinks, the heart trusts and the spirit motivates but are they in balance?  Jesus is the picture of perfect balance and harmony in the three.  He believed in being one with His Father and His Father’s will.  His heart was submitted to loving everyone relationally starting with His Father and then everyone He met.  His spirit was the Holy Spirit who empowered His mind and heart to think, trust and follow the Word from one moment to the next.  To describe Jesus is to see Him as the perfect man and perfect God combined.  With the balance of love for His Father and always being led by the Spirit who carries that love through Him, we have the message, the mission, the ministry that changed human history.  Jesus, being the exact image of God, carries the design for what we were created to be like, a unique image of God.

       The mind of Jesus was always devoted completely to being in His Father’s Word and doing His will which He considered His food.  The heart of Jesus was always actively feeling what others felt.  He empathized with people.  What His heart sensed in others was their need for the Father’s love which He extended on every occasion.  In fact, He defined love in a new way in every reaction from healing the needy, loving both the open hearted and the hard hearted and challenging the worldly religious, political and social attitudes thrown at Him.  He loved friend and enemy alike, comforting those who followed Him and praying for the forgiveness of those who mistreated Him. 

       The Cross was the seal of His love, His bloody agonizing lonely death the evidence.  It may be good to note here that Jesus hung on that Cross for 6 hours.  6 is the devil’s number (666) and fallen man’s number.  He gave up the Spirit, His life’s motivator and bore the devil and man’s number in our place.  The Resurrection was the defeat of the devil, his sin and evil.  The Cross which was a symbol of human fear and control, became a symbol of God’s love for each of us..

       The balance in Jesus was seen on the Cross giving new definition to life as spiritual, personal and relational.  The first thing to notice is how Jesus accomplished this being completely alone relying on faith, His love for His Father and facing death alone.  Fulfilling prophecy, living for His Father, doing His will, His balance beam was the precision and perfection He demonstrated in a limited human body in a different balance beam environment.  He is our ultimate balance beam.

       Think of where and what He lived as balance beams, His lonely humanity as a balance beam in a local family, in a local community, in a local job, in a local nation in a local planet in a massive universe.  Each of these a balance beams demanding a perfect response.  How He achieved His balance. His mindset was in the Word.  His ‘heartset’ was love and His “Spiritset’ was faith, each in perfect balance, unity and oneness.  Jesus’ life was a perfect balance for each. 

        Jesus’ balanced life is the corrective for the unbalanced lives we live.  We may think one thing with our minds, but our heart is far from that.  Paul sums it up when he said about himself that the good he wanted to do he couldn’t and the evil he would never do he does.  He knew something was missing in his life and it was Jesus whose balance made the difference.  His mind had been directed by worshiping rules and traditions.  His heart was covetous.  His spirit was hostile.  Each of them was out of balance and as a person, he was out of balance.  Jesus changed Paul from inside to out and from the bottom up. 

       Jesus’ life was a spiritually balanced never-ending life He made accessible to all of us by His death, Resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

       This ends with a question. “You and I, what is the condition of our balance beams, the ones like the Lord, family, friends, job, you know, is our heart in sync with our mind and is our spirit motivated by the Holy Spirit through the Word?”  This begs another question. If balance is the issue, with whom and where did Jesus spend all of His time using His mind, heart and Spirit?  Keep His balance beam in mind and let Him bless you as you let Him readjust your balance beams.