Balance: Life’s Juggling Act

Some people can juggle. Fewer people can walk a tightrope. This guy was doing both.

It was a few years back, and I was in London with my family. At Covent Garden, there were street performers everywhere, but this guy was the cream of the crop.

He had strung a tightrope eight feet in the air between two columns near the entrance of an old, abandoned church, and he’d walk back and forth in the air, juggling bowling pins, knives, sticks, and other items. It was captivating.

Balance can feel just like that—just as hard, just as captivating.

That actually helps me think about life, which never feels like perfect stillness. It never even feels like imperfect stillness. Very little about life seems still. It’s more like unexpected change:

• The phone call from a family member about a medical diagnosis.
• A shift in the market.
• A snowstorm that disrupts the week’s plans.
• A key member who leaves unexpectedly.

What does this kind of quick change do to you? To your plans? To your heart? To your attitude toward others?

The good news from Moschen is this: “Anyone can learn to juggle. It’s about breaking down complex patterns and maneuvers into simple tasks.”

One of the best biblical examples of a good life juggler is found in Proverbs 31. This familiar passage provides a snapshot of a woman with responsibilities at home, at work, in the community, and in the spiritual arena, and she’s juggling them all:

• Her husband has confidence in her (v. 11).
• She’s a conscientious employer (v. 15).
• Her business associates call her a wise investor (vv. 16, 18).
• She cares for the poor (v. 20).
• Her children call her blessed (v. 28).

Despite her many responsibilities, we don’t get the sense that this woman is frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed out, or out of balance. Quite the opposite.

She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

Strength, dignity, laughing at the days to come. That sounds more than OK to me. That sounds like what Michael Moschen would call perfect-yet-temporary equilibrium. There are always variables coming. But you’ve got a woman who sees the variable coming, takes a deep breath, and responds—not because all is well and not because she’s a stoic but because she knows deep soul rest.

At the base of it all is a woman in right relationship with God. It says she feared the Lord (v. 30).

So often, we try to live our lives through a to-do list. Family. Work. Community. Neighbors. Church. Side job. Finish one and then move to the next.

But this woman is not living a priority list where she knocks out family or work and then moves on to the next one. It’s a constant juggle. And not the juggling that’s exhausting. The juggling is seamless, like when a spaceship hits orbit equilibrium.

How does that sound to you? I don’t live there all the time, but I’ve tasted it, and it tastes sweet. 

Try this definition on for size: Balance is the ability to continually recognize and juggle the multidimensional assignments and opportunities of life.

• Not every month looks the same. Interruptions happen. You’ve got to continually adjust where your mental and physical efforts go.
• We all have blind spots. Who are the people who point out yours?
• Do you have the ability to keep an eye on something without having total focus on it?
• Do you have a composite scorecard for life?
• Assignments and opportunities. What assignments in life have you been given? What opportunities stand out in this season?

It’s going to look different from person to person. The Bible will set some parameters here but won’t let us become legalists who turn our way of doing things into the way.

It takes spiritual rootedness, where there is a spiritual rest that empowers me to focus on different areas as needed but never view life as all-encompassing. My worth doesn’t come from completing the task perfectly.

And it’s not going to go perfectly. You’re going to drop a ball on occasion. After all, that’s juggling.

I've always loved a 30,000 foot view--on airplanes and on complex topics in life. And as a person of faith, I'm a big believer that my faith ought to shape all my days, not just my Sundays. So periodically, I combine these two impulses to take a wide lens and to see faith impact real life, and I do a practical theological primer of sorts on a topic. See what you think.