How to Create and Maintain Balance in Your Life

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Have you over-committed yourself? Maybe you're still feeling sluggish. The after-effects of the pandemic, or perhaps you're dealing with a lack of motivation, anxiety, or depression. There are a lot of different reasons why you might be feeling these things. , but one of the biggest culprits is a lack of balance.

Life is a Dance

You have lost your balance and when once you've lost your balance, it's difficult to get it back, but you can get that balance back. You can create and maintain balance in your life. In fact, Jesus was one of the most balanced persons to ever live, and that's exactly what God wants for you. So how do you get it?

How do you find the balance that Jesus managed to create and maintain? 

Many people say, "I can't find balance in my life."  Actually, that's wrong-headed thinking. Balance is not something you find. Balance is something you create and maintain in your life. It's a balancing act because life isn't static.

Life is always moving. Life is always changing. Life is always throwing things at you. Picture a high wire act. A man or a woman is inching his or her way across the wire. They have a balancing pole and are just trying to get across without falling, but people are throwing things at them. they have to duck and dodge the flying objects.

They have to sway and move. Sometimes they have to take a hit in order to keep their balance. That's what life is like. Life is like a high-wire act where life is throwing things at you and you have to duck and dodge, and sometimes you have to take a hit in order to keep your balance.

You don't go through life stiff and still. Life is more of a swaying motion. You have to roll with the punches and take on all that life is throwing at you. Life is more like a journey than a destination. It's more like a dance than a race. And Jesus knew how to dance.

The 3x3 Framework

Let's look at Jesus' life and see how he danced in life, maintaining his balance all the way through. In order to do that, I want to suggest a three-by-three framework. As I study Jesus' life, I see this three-by-three framework he used to create and maintain balance in his life. 

Jesus lived in three spaces, with three faces, and three habits. I use the number three strategically because anything more than three becomes too difficult to maintain. It becomes overwhelming and defeats the purpose of creating balance.

If you try to live in five spaces, for instance, it's too much. If you try to live with five faces, it's too much. If you try to develop and implement five different habits instead of three, it's too much. Stick with three.

The Three Spaces

First, you must identify the three spaces you will live in. Jesus lived in three different spaces. Every time you find him in the New Testament, you find him in one of these three spaces. He's either on the mountain, in the wilderness, or in the village. 

The Mountain

Jesus spent time on the mountain. The mountain is the place where Jesus connected with God.

Mark 14:23 reports: "After he had dismissed them (his disciples), he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone." Jesus goes up the mountain to be alone.

And then John 6:15 says, "Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself."

At times, Jesus went up to the mountain to be alone with God. In these stressful moments, the crowds were pressing against him. They were trying to make him an earthly king.

In other words, they were unintentionally distracting him from his eternal mission. Jesus withdrew from the crowd. He moved away from them to be alone with God.

Sometimes Jesus went up the mountain with other people. Luke 9:28 says, "About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John, and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray."

This becomes the famous transfiguration scene where Jesus reveals himself to his friends. Here Jesus goes up the mountain to be with the community.

What happens on these mountaintop experiences? What happens in this space?

In this space, we find prayer, worship, praise, love, healing, relationship, replenishing, restoration, and affirmation. It was on the mountaintop that God affirmed Jesus' identity. So Jesus experienced the mountaintop.

The Wilderness

The second place is the wilderness.

The wilderness is where Jesus not only connected to God, but it's also the place where he connected to himself.

Luke 5:16 says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." And Matthew 4:1 reveals how Jesus began his journey -- "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."

In that particular wilderness experience, the devil attacked Jesus at the point of his identity, or his self-awareness. Does Jesus really know who he is? Is Jesus firmly planted in his own identity?

This is what the devil was testing.

Matthew 4:3 says, "The tempter came to Jesus and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus was going into the wilderness to be tested on his identity.

Here is what we find in the wilderness experience: prayer (this will become a recurring theme, as prayer is found in all three spaces), meditation, reflection, self-awareness, repentance, forgiveness, cleansing, love, direction, and vision.  It's in the wilderness that God gives us the vision for what he wants us to do in the world.

The Village

So the first space is the mountaintop. The second space is the wilderness. And the third space is the village. In the village. Jesus connected to people.

Mark 1:38 says, "Jesus replied, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages."

And Matthew 9:35 concurs, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness."

So what is it that happens in the village?

In the village, Jesus finds connection, friendship, fulfillment, love, and action or impact. 

The village is the place where we actually do things. This is the place where we actually get things done. It's not enough to stay on the mountaintop or in the wilderness.

Jesus never went into the wilderness or the mountaintop to stay there. He went to the wilderness and the mountaintop to have experiences with God that would propel him back into the village where the people were, and where the real work was to be done. This is where you have an impact. This is where you find satisfaction.

In the village, he also found prayer (other people praying for him), fellowship, therapy (the village is therapeutic), and help.

Am I saying that Jesus needed help? Yes! Jesus needed help. There were several times when Jesus admitted that he needed help. At one point, the night before his death, he says to his disciples, "Come with me and pray for me. I need you near me." 

There were times when Jesus needed help. We all need help. In the village, we find that help.

These are the three spaces where Jesus lived: the mountain, the wilderness, and the village. You need to identify the three spaces where you're going to live.

The Three Faces

The second thing we see in Jesus is three faces.

You might think of this in terms of the different hats that you wear. Jesus wore three hats. He used three faces.  

Jesus, the Rabbi-Sage

The first face that Jesus wore was that of Rabbi-Sage. The sages were those who lived in the wilderness. They spoke wisdom into people's lives. They performed miracles and healings. Jesus was this Rabbi-Sage.

He taught and healed and exorcised demons, performed miracles, and confronted the system the oppressive systems of his day.

This, this face is the face you wear at work. This is your vocation. This is what you do on a daily basis, and whatever you do, wherever you do it, you should do it for the honor and glory of God.

Whether you're a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, a bricklayer, or a construction worker -- whatever it is that you do, you should do it in such a way that brings honor and glory to God.

Jesus, the Friend

The second face that Jesus wore was that of a friend. Jesus was a true friend to his disciples.

Jesus loved his disciples deeply. The night before his death, Jesus gathered his disciples and John 15:9-17 reports a snippet of what he told them -- 

"As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything I have learned from my father. I have made known to. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."

This is the face you wear when you're with your family, friends, and your loved ones. This is the face you wear when you're on vacation with your children. This is the face you wear when you're with your wife in your most intimate times. This is the face you wear when you're expressing your love to the people that are most precious to you.

It's a very important face.

Jesus, the Messiah

Finally, Jesus had the face of the Messiah.

This is a matter of your life mission. One face has to embody the mission of your life. What were you born to do?

It is usually different from the work face. Work is not always the same as mission.

Jesus did a lot of things. He taught and healed and helped people. But the one thing he came to do was to die on the cross for our sins. He had a laser-like focus on that ultimate mission. His day-to-day work -- the miracles, the teachings, the healings, and the exorcism -- He did to set the stage for the completion of his ultimate mission. The day-to-day work laid the foundation for his ultimate mission, but the mission itself was for him to die for our sins.

The problem is that the work we do can become an end unto itself, and that never brings fulfillment in life.

It wasn't the miracles, healings, exorcisms, teachings, or adulation of the crowds that fueled Jesus' life. It was his mission and he would push all those other day-to-day activities aside when they were getting in the way of his ultimate mission.

Jesus understood the work that he came to do, and he understood that the work he was doing on a daily basis, was not the mission. Ultimately, he came to die for our sins. 

You should take a look at your three faces. For Jesus, it was Rabbi-Sage, Friend, and Messiah. Obviously, it will be different for you. Identify the three faces that you're living with and the three spaces you're living in. the faces you're living with. 

The Three Habits

Finally, there are three habits.

Let's go back to Jesus. What were three habits we see in Jesus that were each used as a foundation for the balance he achieved in life?

Service

The first habit is the habit of service.

Jesus served people. Jesus was always looking for the person who needed something -- the person who was sick, possessed, or suffering in some way. Jesus always had time for that person. 

This is what brings true joy and fulfillment to life -- when you get outside of yourself and begin to serve other people. Service is one habit that we want to form.

Community

The second is community. Jesus was all about building community.

Building a community is actually quite time-consuming. It's not easy. It was the biggest and most important thing that Jesus did. Jesus' genius was his ability to build a community that, after his death and resurrection, began to change the world.

Community gives you human connection and love, and perhaps more importantly, it brings a common mission or a common goal, a common purpose. 

Rest

Finally, Jesus had the habit of rest. This is a big one.

There's no way for me to overemphasize how important it is for you to get rest. I want to maybe tear down a few of the misconceptions about rest. Rest is actually hard work. Okay. That sounds crazy. I know it sounds oxymoronic, but it's true.

Rest is actually hard work. It takes preparation and intentionality and a strong commitment to have the rest you need so that you can do all the other things God wants you to do.

What do I mean when I say rest? Well, obviously, I mean sleep. Sleep is super important, but it's not just sleep, it's also prayer.

That should be a common refrain by now. I hope you see that prayer saturates every one of these life-balancing tools. In rest, you experience prayer, meditation, and self-reflection. These are all the things that give you the fuel you need to accomplish the mission God has for you.

Rest is the place where you get filled back up in order to go out and do all that God wants you to do.

The way that God created you requires that you rest.

Call to Action

Perhaps you can begin to see why creating balance in life is not easy and why losing that balance happens all the time. It happens to all of us. We all lose balance. You must think in terms of these three dimensions, the three-by-three framework with three spaces, three faces, and three habits.

Wherever you find yourself over the next couple of weeks, I want you to ask yourself these three questions: What space am I in right now? What face am I wearing right now? What habit am I practicing right now?

If you want to take that to another level, you can begin to incorporate those three questions into your calendaring and weekly planning so that you're asking these questions ahead of time. Now it becomes strategic and you are building balance into your daily life.  

God bless you, and I wish you all the love in the world, and I pray that God will bless you as you seek to find balance in your life.