The Balance Beam

Sometimes we treat lives like a balance beam.

We try our best to keep ourselves totally lined up with Scripture, thinking that a small bobble here or a toe off the beam will cost us a tenth of a point in eternity.

We do backflip after backflip to impress the judges of our lives...our kids, our parents, our boss, our spouse...remembering everything, going everywhere, and doing for everyone.

Occasionally we'll try to straddle the struggle of home and work, or home and church, trying to keep our footing and our balance as one weighs heavier than the other. Only it ends up feeling more like a teeter-totter rather than a balance beam.

Then we look to the big finish...and hope and pray we can stick the landing and look good enough to win the medal...the crown...the brownie points needed to please God or whomever will care enough to watch.

We fall, we get bruised, and we bear the scars of trying to walk such a narrow path...when if we'd just climb down onto the level, wide open floor of freedom to be real...

I've never been good at gymnastics...so why do I try to balance my life so narrowly...to jump through so many hoops?

Lord, put me back down on solid ground....teach me to serve, to work, to play...for an Audience of One...because You're really all that matters.

I'm hopping down...how about you?

Meet you on the big mat...let's just bounce around for awhile!!

Deena