Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Swinging into Balance



Swinging into Balance, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.
I love this picture of my former roommate, Nic Culp. He lives in North Carolina now with his beautiful wife, Tara, but from time to time they come up for a visit.

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about a concept of rhythm and balance in our lives at our campus church service h2o. Have you ever noticed your life getting out of balance? Sometimes it just feels like everything is slightly out of step. And it isn't just a spiritual thing. Physically we get our lives out of rhythm when we don't get adequate nourishment, rest, and exercise. Emotionally we lose sync when we become reactionary victims of circumstance. Mentally we find ourselves out of balance when we allow our minds to gravitate toward things that aren't true and good, or we begin to surround ourselves with lies that pollute.

Of course over the month of January I worked hard toward a physical goal of 100 miles of running (which I accomplished!!!). But over the last week, I have largely ignored physical exercise. As a result, I found that my mental, emotional, and spiritual lives took a hit as well. Of course my spiritual life helps to bring other things into balance, but having other areas out of balance will swing us out of rhythm too. You know what I mean?

Last night I went running for the first time in a week. It was amazing what setting aside a little bit of time for exercise meant for my mental, spiritual and emotional sharpness?

Do you feel out of Rhythm ever? How do you adjust and get back on track? I'm discovering that running is very helpful for me. It's a tool that I have ignored for most of the last seven years of my life, but one I'm becoming aware of again.

I find that once I lose rhythm it takes a focussed effort to bring myself back into sync too. It's so easy to let inertia carry me instead of being intentional with time and efforts. Take some time today and evaluate where you are mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. If something needs to change, don't wait! Make it happen today!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey man, glad to hear you are back at it. ~jim w

nic said...

Preach it brother

Go eers

Ariela said...

Wow, Billy. That is deep, and something I definitely agree we have to keep in check. I think accountability is where we can start in trying to avoid a loss of balance.
I used to run about everyday, and I really want to get back into it. It is really going to take a lot of effort from where I am, though, to get over those initial days of shock/ pain. Prayer and patience and longsuffering!