FINDING THE BALANCE
PRIORTIZING OUR DEVOTION
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."Galatians 2:20
It seems we live in a world of hectic chaos and never-ending to-do lists. We franticly rush, set timers and reminders, and keep multiple calendars so we can keep up while adding more and more to our plates. We are overwhelmed, overstimulated, overstressed, and under-rested.
I am writing this from a personal perspective as someone who has struggled heavily with this. My inability to find balance in the past didn’t mean I was filling my day with bad or even useless things. I want to do right, be helpful, offer support, and take part in areas of service, all for the right reason.
My guess is that this is familiar to you as well. What I have seen and realized is that, more often than not, the imbalance of our day-to-day doesn’t come from selfish desires or motives. Instead, it comes from a good heart that wants to do good things. This disorder seems to make more sense we are attempting to remove unhealthy or sinful things from our lives to bring about balance and peace. But how and why do we remove the good things?
A Personal Story: Reflections from a Mission Trip
Following a recent mission trip that my son and I were a part of, I found myself curiously examining the balance in my life by way of questions like this:
Why does it seem that the physical demands on mission trips are less exhausting than my daily routine at home, even though they are often more strenuous?
How does my attitude toward physical discomfort change when I'm serving Christ on mission compared to when I'm at home?
How does my mindset on mission contribute to a sense of peace, even in challenging circumstances?
Why do unexpected moments during mission trips feel less overwhelming than the unexpecteds of when I’m home.
Why do I depend more on God when I’m on a mission trip than when I’m at home?
My answers to these questions revealed a misalighment not in where I live but the difference of how I balanced my “most importants” in each place. Do you struggle to find balance and give proper priority to all the things? If so, here are some super sweet moments from the trip that opened my eyes to the truth I had been searching for.
KNOW YOUR ROLE: With a large team of people, we each had our own areas of service. One particular day, my responsibility, along with a team of ladies, was to teach at a women’s conference while my son served on the construction team. Our roles of service were distinctly different. I didn’t serve in construction and he didn’t teach at women’s conference, but together, we were balanced as a team with the ultimate goal of serving others and honoring Christ.
SERVE WHERE YOU ARE PLACED: On another day, my group was assigned to evangelism visits on a remote hilltop, while others visited and evangelized in houses near the local church. The purpose was the same, but by strategically balancing our team, we were able to share the Gospel with many more people than if we had all remained in one group.
STEWARD YOUR STRENGTHS: Those who were medically trained worked in a clinic, serving the sick and hurting. By using their strengths and talents, they showed love, support, care, compassion, and Christ to the community. Due to a complete lack of necessary medical knowledge, this is not the area myself or many others served in. But there was balance. Because we offered ourselves for service in other ways. Our team was blessed with many gifts and strengths, and each was stewarded to make Christ known that week.
Some shared Christ and taught the Gospel in schools
Some led Worship & taught songs
Some distributed food and offered encouragement and a helping hand.
Some preached, led & organized
Some shared their hearts and stories, while others listened
Because of this, there was an intentional balance and our mission team was able to accomplish so much more together than we could have individually. We could have ran frantically from one village to the next in an attempt to accomplish what we had planned. But what I can just about promise is that the rush would have hindered our hearts and the sweetness of conversation may have very well been missed. We each didn’t do everything, but we all did something. I had the blessing of witnessing a group of men, women, teens, and children come together, unified as the body of Christ in humble obedience and serving hearts for one purpose — displaying the Goodness of God.
Prioritization and balance multiplied our opportunities to be useful vessels for Christ. With a unified purpose and the stewardship of our time and talents, a group of men, women, children, and teens shared in the blessing and honor of bringing light to the darkness through the power of Jesus.
It’s not really about me at all — It’s about the intentional way I balance and prioritize the every day moments of life that is focused first on my role as a Christ Follower.
Over the following weeks, I will share some practical tips on finding balance in Faith, Family, Friends and all the things.
Joyfully HIS
Jennifer N. Pearson