By the Way: Finding balance
By Rev. Oz Lorentzen on September 7, 2024.
I’ve been thinking about balance or, more precisely, thinking about how hard it is to balance: which is true for most things, cheque books, pencils on your finger, and (maybe because I am getting older) one’s self, standing on one leg. It’s hard to balance, otherwise tightrope walkers would not be a circus act. Balancing is difficult, and one contributing factor seems to be our tendency to over correct. This situation is nicely demonstrated by the experience of trying to drive something with articulated steering, where the front wheels and the rear wheels steer independently (imagine riding a bicycle on which the rear wheel steered as well as the front – learning to ride a bike just got exponentially more difficult). What makes this a great example is that every movement to adjust your direction is magnified, “going to the left, oops now going to the right, oops now going to the left”-you get the picture, you end up zigzagging down the road. I imagine we find ourselves doing the same thing, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually and culturally (proven wisdom lies in the advice: “don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”) This situation is made critical because unlike riding a bike, feedback about whether or not we are off balance is usually delayed and not always clear. And yet, balance is important, and waiting indefinitely for feedback or in anxious anticipation jerking the wheel back the other way are not ideal responses (to name just a few potential hazards in the balancing act we call life). What to do? Balancing is hard, but crucial! Here is one thing that helps: having a fixed, stable and appropriate focus point goes a long way to correcting our inevitable tendency to zigzag through life. What sort of thing could serve as such a focal point? Well, I am glad you asked, I do have a few ideas… Rev. Oz Lorentzen is the pastor at St. Barnabas Anglican Church 9-8
