Don't get me wrong, balance is a good thing. I think. It's just hard. Maybe that's why it's good. But when I visualize what it means to balance, I see muscles clenched, arms flailing, feet shifting, all systems on high alert for the slightest movement that will upset a fragile hard-fought-rarely-won equilibrium. Like a ballerina on point, straining elegantly. Like a surfer crouching and bouncing on the waves. Like a delicate allocation of gold dust on a swinging scale - the tiniest grain added to one side or the other upsetting - causing a tilt. I remember the dynamics of the see-saw from childhood playgrounds. Do they have see-saws anymore? I can't recall seeing one recently. There was a science to holding the board straight with equal distribution of weight on each end. We learned that the heavier person had to scooch closer to the bar - usually me (nothing has changed - sigh) - learned to still our dangling feet but leave them outstretched to catch ourselves if/when our end (look, a pun!) headed south. This kind of balance, in my estimation, is exhausting. Maybe that's why I sometimes shy away from using balance as a goal/measure in my life.
I realize that I am splitting the proverbial potayto/potahto/tomayto/tomahto hair here, but the word that works better for me is level. Level ground is a solid place to stand. A stable, un-shifting foundation where highs meet lows and wind can buffet without knocking you off your feet. A place of comfort and rest in the midst of whatever might be swirling around - blowing your hair and turning your dress into sails - but steady in essence. And when I think of this idea, I think of the words of Isaiah 40. This passage is often read at Christmas time but Scripture isn't limited by seasons. Hence this Lenten prayer offering:
Comfort us Lord, for we are worn out from sin-living. Our soul-accounts are over-drawn from the consequence-payments. Straighten things out, Lord, here in this desert that is our heart. Raise up the valleys and flatten out the mountains. Smooth out our rocky-roughness and level out the see-saw thoughts of our busy minds. Give us a flat spot amid this turmoil where we can be still and know and watch for the Glory that is You. Come, Lord Jesus. Speak tenderly once again. Selah.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Isaiah 40: 1-5 NIV
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