Week Twenty-Three, 2019
By Florida Senator John Grant, Retired
HOW BALANCED ARE YOU?
So, I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Gal. 5:16
It was a year ago when I had a bad fall overseas. I experienced a cracked skull and a brain bleed. After a couple of weeks in the hospital, I was able to go to a hotel and then after a few days, fly home. It was not a fun experience. At first, I was in a wheel chair, then a walker and finally, a cane.
My balance was all out of whack and a year later, I am still going through physical therapy to get my balance where it ought to be. Balance is an important part of our everyday life. When we lose balance, a decrease in performance and an increase in injury due to compensations or falls results. Our bodies adapt to the training that we perform. Balance training is important because balance is a part of everything we do. When we walk, run, bike or swim, we are balancing ourselves.
Physical balance is important, but perhaps spiritual balance is more so. The Bible charges us to lead a spiritually balanced life. God calls us to set aside regular time for prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading and remind our self to experience the presence of God. We are to strive mightily against sin and do deeds of love and mercy and aim to live in the joy and power of the Spirit. It is not all about us as we should endeavor to serve others everywhere and we can and work for justice in all human relationships and social structures.
We should speak out by sharing our faith with others as God leads, and study the Scriptures regularly. We should joyfully seek to show the presence of God in all that we are, in all that we do, in all that we say.
When all the streams are in balance we roll along smoothly, but inconsistencies tend to make us thump along like we have a flat tire. That ‘flat tire’ area may need some special attention, study and growth to bring us to a fuller life. We should constantly be on guard.
We should look to God, not to others to determine our priorities. We should say no, so that we can say yes. Jesus said no—so that He could say yes to what was most important. Only by gleaning our priorities from Scripture will we be able to make confident decisions amidst overwhelming demands. We can choose many good things and end up missing the best things—the essential priorities.
Balance is like a pendulum; It’s that brief moment in the middle when you’re swinging from one extreme to the other. Part of our pursuit of balance contains the realization that it is never perfectly achieved. The pursuit of balance is the goal. So, don’t be frustrated with the constant effort.
Like our bodily balance, we should have spiritual balance as well. Are you leading a balanced Christian life?
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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES
Gallup reports that Americans are among the most stressed people in the world. Our rates of stress and worry are higher than ever before. Remarkably, our negative emotions are even higher than during the Great Recession.
According to a recent survey, 81 percent of Americans say stress impacts their work negatively. Forty-eight percent have cried at work; 50 percent missed at least one day of work during the last year because of stress induced at the office.
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If you live every day as if it were your last day, one day you’ll be right. In the meantime, every day will be the best you can make it.
John responded to his Lord: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (v. 20b).
Can you say the same?
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The Arizona Cardinals made Kyler Murray the first pick in the recent NFL draft. Murray is the first player to be selected in the first round by both the National Football League and Major League Baseball. (He was drafted ninth by the Oakland Athletics last June.)
Murray is obviously an amazing athlete, but the history of first picks in the NFL is not entirely encouraging.
The first player ever drafted in the NFL was Jay Berwanger in 1936. The team would not agree to his contract terms, so he never played a down in the league. Tom Cousineau was the first overall pick in 1979, but he chose to play in Canada instead and never played for the team that drafted him.
Steve Emtman was drafted first in 1992, but injuries cut short his career. Same for Ki-Jana Carter, drafted first in 1995, and for Courtney Brown, drafted first in 2000.
This trend shows that it’s not where you’re drafted, but how long and well you play that counts. The same is true in life.
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The shift in our culture has been significant. In the 1950s, American life was communal. People lived in neighborhoods in which they did life together. Family, church, and collective rituals such as baptisms, weddings, and other life passages framed our experience.
In the 1960s, we shifted from “us” to “me.” Truth is what I say it is; morality is what works for me without harming you.
We’ve now run out the string on self-centered living and are facing an epidemic of loneliness as a result. The opioid crisis, escalating suicide rates, and plethora of social ills we face are symptoms of this underlying disease.
Paul had been enormously successful in his early life (Philippians 3:4–6; Acts 22:3). Then he learned to “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
He climbed the “first mountain” of temporal success before discovering the “second mountain” of eternal significance.
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More than 51,000 people moved into the Tampa Bay area last year, making it the ninth in the nation for numeric growth.
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QUOTES YOU CAN USE
If you gaze too long at your circumstances, you will become dizzy and confused.
We choose our life every day.
Too many Christians are like a fat man in the gym lecturing others on the importance of exercise.
Annie Dillard said it this way, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Every morning, we get to choose the direction and the habits that lead us to live our best life possible. What a privilege! What an honor! What an opportunity! We must choose the best for ourselves (and others) every single day.