Balance

Balance.  “Balance,” wrote J. I. Packer (Knowing God), “is a horrible, self-conscious word.” In his view, a (so-called) well-rounded Christian, who insulates himself from risk and remains aloof, is tragically disconnected from Jesus’ radical ideas of denial, holiness, and sacrificial service. In that sense, Packer is not wrong. But balance is not only that. In the physical world, balance is a strong force, albeit secondary to and dependent upon the power of God.

Today, or some may cite tomorrow depending on which part of the sun is measured, is the Autumnal Equinox where the earth hovers in a brief and relative state of balance on its own tilted, twirling axis. By tomorrow (or by Friday), the thin balance of Equinox will have rolled toward winter’s darkness (in the Northern Hemisphere). Yet, year after year, this blue marble on which we live doesn’t roll off into outer darkness after the Equinox. It returns to balance in the springtime of every year. And so, God balances even the apparent imbalance of our planet’s constant motion. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa. 19:1).

The disequilibrium we fear might happen to us in our smaller spheres of existence, our loss of control at a much lower elevation than the sun and the earth, is rather ridiculous. Do we really think that we have enough power to jar loose Earth’s orbit or, even more preposterously, to eject ourselves from the grip of God’s grace? I might not think so rationally, but I sometimes live as though cosmic balance is in jeopardy. But it is not! “Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter” (Psa. 74:16-17). “Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!” (Psa. 148:3).

Balance is not ours to establish, to worry about, to assist, or to ruin. Balance—if we even want to call it that—is the Lord’s. He keeps it. He keeps all. He keeps us. “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night” (Psa. 121:5-6). We can rest assured: “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37).