Have you ever lost your balance? In my youth, someone invented a thing called a skateboard. No, not one like today, these had metal wheels taken directly from roller skates and put on a board intended to result in skinned knees, broken bones and possible death. Well, okay, I exaggerated a little. I was on one of these deadly toys when I lost my balance, landed flat on my back and had all my wind knocked out of me. I lay there all alone on the sidewalk and could not breathe. It was terrifying.
These many years later, I am well trained about balance because I am a martial artist and it is all about taking away the other person’s balance. This is how a small person like my daughter can literally throw a larger person, like me, through the air. It is all about balance. As I have gotten older, I have come to see that a balance in what I eat is important. A balance in what I teach in the classroom is important. A balance in what I plant in the garden is important. And, a balance in the spiritual life is important.
I think Church has lost its balance. Ronald Rolheiser writes about this need for balance and points toward the conclusion that churches are full of answers but no longer asking questions. Full of rules but no longer full of responsibilities. Full of laws but no freedom. I agree and will add to this by saying, in these current days there is so much talk about Millenials and that they are leaving church and any sort of religious life, though seeking spirituality and it is our fault.
I am the parent of a Millenial and the teacher of hundreds of them. Rolheiser is correct in his analysis of church. That being said, let my generation and those that came before accept responsibility. We caused this. We allowed our children and our churches to become these things, because it is what we wanted. If you would like to know what gave rise to the Emergent Church of today, look in the mirror first thing each morning and all around you on Sunday morning. That is your answer, you (we) caused it to happen.
Does not every sacred text talk about a balance in life? It is clear in the Christian scriptures. Jesus was leaving the wilderness and was tempted to turn stones into bread. So are we by the way. This temptation is us, our need to continually satisfy what we want in life. It is always tempting to turn the stones to bread and eat right. The theologian Miroslav Volf, made this point in a recent conference. He added that we want more and better bread! And, this throws us out of balance because this immediate gratification of everything is not how life works.
Jesus’ life is the “narrow path” that we are called to follow. But even he was clear that we do not live by bread alone. We need balance between bread and water, self-service and self-sacrifice. We need to work on our balance, every day, to stay spiritually “fit”. And, we must balance our need for answers with the joy of the question.
TMM