Living a Life of Balance

Sometimes I wonder how much progress we are truly making in the world.  It can be disheartening to watch the news or read the comments on social media, and it doesn’t feel like we’ve made much progress.  But many of the things we take for granted now haven’t been happening for that long.  Taking a hot shower only became common in the 1960’s.  Indoor plumbing has existed for less than 100 years.  We can pull up to a drive-thru and have hot food or coffee within a few minutes.  The driver’s seat in my car has three different levels of heat in the winter and a heated steering wheel, so there has been some pretty cool progress in some odd ways…but why doesn’t it always feel like it?   

Lately I’ve been thinking about living a life of balance in this progressive world of ours.  Progress can be a good thing; it certainly feels good to complete a project or to advance towards a goal.  Progress can also help improve lives.  I’d like to think that the progress Bethany has made in the past 60 years has impacted thousands of lives for the better.  But progress can also be a dangerous thing if we allow it to consume us.  Many are consumed by the constant need to do more, to do better, to make more money, to buy more things…the list goes on and on. Progress does not always value the person, and it does not always value rest.  There is no time for rest in a world that is “go-go-go”.  And as humans, to be most productive we need to take time to rest, reflect, and take care of ourselves.  But we humans are an oddity, we don’t always choose to do what we know is best for us.  Just ask my youngest daughter who doesn’t want to go to bed on time.    

I may have mentioned this before, but in the book “Sabbath” by Wayne Muller, he says, “…the time to live and love and give thanks and rest and delight is now, this moment, this day.”  This is a reminder we all need from time to time.  And then like Nike says we need to, “just do it”.  Block out all the stuff that is happening.  Enjoy the moment.  Delight in the day.  Remember that it is about our journey and not the destination.  Progress can be tiring, and sometimes we need to simply rest. In the long run it seems that when we take time for rest, we’ll likely be more productive.  If you’re struggling to find a good balance and feel guilty about resting, just remember that the best players in the world sit on the bench sometimes.  Everyone does better when they’ve had a break.

“Our reluctance to rest—our belief that our joy and delight may somehow steal from the poor, or add to the sorrows of those who suffer—is a dangerous and corrosive myth.”

-          Wayne Muller, “Sabbath”