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Balance In Your Life

Hi everyone,
 
            Wow.  With our weather getting near the 0 degrees point, it feels like we all packed up and landed in some tropical paradise.  It sure feels great to get outside without THE FEAR OF DEATH looming over you all the time.
 
            I hope you are able to connect with our Boot Camp series this year.  As we do every January, we will focus on several spiritual disciplines.  This year, these disciplines will help us slow down and fight back against the tyranny of busyness.  It is when we slow down that we can more fully appreciate the relationship that we have with Jesus.   Going too fast and being too busy are not healthy ways to live. 
 
            Back in the 2000s, Jennifer and I had this van that we used to pull our tent trailer.  At first, that van worked like a charm.  But over the years, as we kept pulling that trailer, after some time, a little red engine light would come on when we were climbing a hill.  I would slow down and eventually the warning light would go away.  All good again!  So, we kept towing that trailer.   Soon, the light would come on even if I was driving on a flat stretch of highway.  It was concerning, for sure, but we kept pulling that trailer. 
 
            One summer, we left Calgary heading west on the Trans Canada towards the majestic Rocky Mountains.  We were barely ten clicks out of town when the warning light came on.  We had a long journey ahead of us…it was way too early for the warning light.  That poor van had had enough.
           
            I was experiencing another kind of warning light, one that was in my body.  I would feel worn out, exhausted, spent.  But I just kept on pushing, pushing, pushing.  The idea of regularly resting was foreign to me. 
 
            I can remember driving in my car one day and feeling so desperately hopeless.  I had been going so hard and yet the demands kept increasing and I had nothing left to give.  I wanted to blame the world around me.  I wanted to blame my family, my workplace, my boss, my God, anything.  But none of them really were to blame.
 
            I was the one to blame.  I was choosing to go at a breakneck speed and wouldn’t listen to the warnings to slow down or to lighten my load.  To be sure, there were parts of my load I couldn’t lighten (I couldn’t get rid of some of my kids, for example).  But there were other things I could do to make life more manageable. 
 
            A verse that gave me a lot of direction with that tension is found in Ecclesiastes.  It says,
 
            Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and a chasing after the wind.
 
            I had to seek God to find out what He wanted me to do, how He wanted me to live.  In my case, insight came after much suffering and because I was forced to see it.  It was painful, but Jesus was with me through everything. 
 
            As we journey through this boot camp series, be in a posture of listening to God to hear what He wants to say to you about the balance in your life. 
 
            This weekend, Pastor Michael will be preaching on “simplicity”, making space in our affections and attentions so that we can see Jesus more clearly.  I am excited to hear what he has to say.
 
            On Monday night, we will have our Worship and Prayer Night.  I love those times and I hope you can be a part of that, too.
 
            I hope you have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
 
            I love being your pastor.
 
Pastor Tim