Balance

I have been thinking about balance lately and how it seems that we end up, “throwing the baby out with the bath water,” so to speak.  In most things we seem to have a balance problem.  

Think about the government for instance, the parties are, for the most part, conservative or liberal and today it seems like there is a dividing of people instead of a uniting of people.  If you are a Republican, you are considered a conservative, if you are a Democrat, you are considered a liberal and it seems like there are no bipartisan people so very little gets accomplished for the greater good.  

If you are not black, you are a racist and if you are white you must be prejudice and if you are not gay you are a bigot.  We have lost all the balance and are mostly one sided, it seems, in most of the areas of life, but none of these things are completely true although if certain parties say it enough people will start to believe it as the truth, which is called divide and separate.  

Some of the biggest fights and arguments that occur have been between these groups of people.  All these things are worldly and have no business in the church of the Living God that ordained it.  The Bible says in Mark 12:30-31, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The Bible makes it very clear who your neighbor is, all you have to do is read the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 25:25-37.  This is a story about love and mercy, not gender or color of skin, or their political party or sexual preference.  This story is a very familiar story which many people know, whether they are a believer or not, and is centered on mercy, compassion and love.  If you know anything about the Jews and the Samaritans hatred for one another, you realize that this was an amazing thing that took place.  Think about this, would you do this for your enemy or would you just pretend you didn’t see the man and go on your way like the priest and Levite did?  There was a very deep seated hatred between these two men because the Jews felt that they were the pure race, descendants of Abraham, but not so with the half breeds they considered the Samaritans to be.  

This is the kind of response the Lord wants His people to take when they deal with an enemy or anyone else that they encounter.  He doesn’t want us to be like the priest or the Levite, ignoring people that are in need for our own benefit or because we are prejudice or we are holding a grudge, no, the Lord wants us to act out of love and compassion, with mercy sprinkled in also.  We will not be able to help everyone but we can certainly help someone.

So, don’t buy into the separating and dividing theory the world would want us to embrace, take the role of a bipartisan person that sees the good in all people regardless of who they are and respond to them as the Good Samaritan did towards the Jew and not like the other two men did.  Let’s be careful to seek a balance in our life and not be lopsided in our thinking, reaching out to only those who are in our inner circle, but expanding our horizons to include everyone without hypocrisy and let us love in deeds and not words only.  

I hope this has been a help to you, may you have a great day and may God bless you and yours!!!