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You'll Never Be Balanced

Balance is a mirage. It’s a mirage in ministry. It’s a mirage in marriage. It’s a mirage in everything! No church is perfectly balanced. No theology is perfectly balanced. No person is perfectly balanced.

So for the record: You’ll never be perfectly balanced.

Trust me, I wish I could perfectly balance family and ministry. I wish I could perfectly balance work and play. I wish I could perfectly balance grace and truth. There are a thousand things I’d love to balance. But you’ll never be perfectly balanced.

Let me demonstrate. Stop reading. Stand up. And balance on one leg. You’re not balanced, are you? Muscles are quivering as you constantly react to your imbalance. Life is like that. So is ministry. I know that some of you are getting depressed, but this shouldn’t be depressing. It should be incredibly liberating. Leadership is all about making the right adjustments. When you get out of balance, you know how to recalibrate. For example, you’ve been working too hard for too long. You need some play time! In theological terms, you need a sabbath. The sabbath is the way we balance creation and recreation.

My point? Embrace the imbalance. Such is life. We’ve got to continually evaluate the tensions in our lives and recognize where we need to recalibrate. For me, it’s been family. I’m scaling back my travel because I sensed an imbalance. So I don’t know where you’re imbalanced, but I know you are! Again, you’ll never be balanced. But it’s a problem that can be solved once and for all. It’s a tension that will be managed the rest of your life! Almost like rotating and recalibrating the tires on your car, you’ll be standing on one leg the rest of your life.

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markbatterson@churchleaders.com'
Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C., a multi-site church and a leading fellowship in the nation’s capital. Meeting in movie theaters and Metro stops throughout the D.C. area, NCC is attended by more than 70 percent single twenty-somethings. Mark’s weekly podcast is one of the fastest growing in America. His book, In A Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars peaked at #44 on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. He has just released his newest book entitled, Wild Goose Chase: Reclaiming the Adventure of Pursuing God. He and his wife Lora live on Capitol Hill. They have three children.