Of the Balance Required

I have a fellow education student who is a parent at school who often says to me "I don't know how you do it".  Indeed she's not the only one to express that sentiment.  I think these past two weeks have made me compartmentalise all the areas of my life in very minute ways.  The things I juggle and balance have all been separated out from one another rather than flowing fluidly in and around my days.


For me, the ability to be engaged in all the things I do is about obedience.  It's about knowing what work God has ordained for me to do and setting about the business of doing it within His strength, and there are times when I'm more aware of this than normal.  I think it's a dangerous thing to compare ourselves with others and think that we need to be like others and do what others do.  I think it's also important that we each understand our own strengths and limitations and work to create a positive way to balance the things that God has given us to do.  I think when we sit within the place God wants us to be that balance is easier to find.

This week balance in life has come with planning in small snatches of time rather than a broad sweep approach to the week. Half an hour for a lecture here, a phone call as I walked into a friend's home to make a dr's appointment there.  Brief thoughts of meals and shopping have occurred between writing the other half of an assignment due on Sunday.  Extra hours at work and parent/teacher interviews have been squeezed between preparation for Camp next week and finding time to do my Uni reading and weekly tasks.

This week I've gone slower, more deliberately.  My head still spins on occasion and I'm off to have that reviewed by the doctor today.  But this week when my friend said "I don't know how you do it", I was more aware than ever that aside from obedience I'm not sure that I do "do it".  I think God does it.  This week I think He's done it because I don't think I could all on my own.  In slowing down God has had time to work in the small moments in ways I don't normally take time to notice.

The question of balance then becomes this:  What is the work that God wants you to do?  And then... Are you doing it?

You know what though?  I'm looking forward to life's balance being something that feels second nature again.  Seeing everything through the filter of a dizzy, cottonwool-filled head is somewhat tiring.