When I was at bible college I remember J I Packer, my tutor, on several occasions telling the tale of a Christian lady who believed in seeking God's guidance for even the most mundane decisions. Each morning when she got up she would pray over which items of clothing to put in. The result was that some days she'd wear one sock, others two which didn't match, and usually her clothes lacked any co-ordination. Hardly the best witness! There's an English proverb which says, "You can be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use!" That story underlines the need for balance in our lives. Yes, we should be zealous and enthusiastic for God, and we should be seeking his guidance for our lives, but there are many areas where God wants us to take our own decisions, and that's necessary if we are to grow to maturity.

1. Balance your purposes. I've previously looked at the five major purposes God has set for our lives, as the Church and as individuals. Today I want to bring them together and encourage us to learn to balance them and other things in our lives. Let me remind you of those purposes in the form of a statement about our Church:
Our Church exists to enable people to key words

• Encounter God (evangelism)
• Worship him (worship)
• Share their lives (fellowship)
• Grow in relationship with Jesus (learning)
• Serve others (service)

I hope you would endorse this, even if you might prefer other ways of expressing it. We have our natural preferences which may lead us to emphasise one or more of these purposes above others, and we have gifts & abilities which fit one or more better. However we are each called to play our part in all these aspects of being human & being Christians. Our Church vitally needs to balance them all too, if we are to be what God wants us to be.

• Which, if any, of these purposes do you think our Church does well, and in which are we weak? How can you help us balance them better?
• Substitute in this statement "yourself" for "the Church". Include or omit the words "to enable people". How would you assess your own balancing of these elements in your life? Think both in terms of your own life personally and of your sharing with other people.

2. Balance your time & priorities. In our first reading today we heard the writer of the letter to Hebrews (2v1) say, "We must pay careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." That's wise advice because I suspect that for most of us our danger is not of making deliberate choices to get unbalanced in our lives, or to turn away from God, but of our drifting under the pressure of busy lives, and the many demands which are made of us by others (including sometimes the Church!). We need, with God's help, to take a positive approach to our lives, to prayerfully consider how we are spending our time, to examine our priorities, and to determine, with God's grace, to order our lives in line with his will. Let's not drift through life, with other people and situations determining our priorities, purposes and directions. Let's allow God to control these, which is the only way to find fulness of life.

• May I challenge you, as the new school year begins, to set aside some time to examine your life, prayerfully? Ask God to help you see whether your life is balanced aright in terms of the purposes God sets before us. Look, too, at whether you are giving the right time to your family, friends,, work, leisure, to God & his Church, and so on.
• From our Church you can take are two papers which may help you. One is a bible study to do over several weeks on time. The other is a grid to help you look at your priorities. (Ask me for copies, if you wish)

3. Balance your understanding. One of the joys of our Church is that we come from such a variety of Christian backgrounds. For example traditionally in determining Christian doctrine Catholics stress the importance of Christian tradition, Evangelicals emphasise the bible, Liberals rely on reason. Actually there is a place for all three of these, as well as for the Holy Spirit's inspiration (which Pentecostals add) - but they need to be balanced aright. The bible must be our primary source for Christian understanding, but it needs to be read intelligently, and in the light of centuries of Christian reflection and inspired by the Spirit. So poetry must be understood differently from history, the historical context taken into account, and so on. We rightly ask the views of others to help us understand, which should include those from the past, for each age has its prejudices. We need the right balance for doctrine and for guidance in daily life.
We are can also become unbalanced in our picture of God. The bible presents many aspects of his character and nature, amongst which we are not at liberty to pick and choose. He is portrayed as the God who gets angry with sin and who punishes wrong with judgement. But he is also shown to be the God of love and mercy, who forgives the penitent. We must get to know God in all his fulness and not run from aspects of his character we don't like.
Our understanding of how life works also needs balance. Christians have in the past battled over the balance between God's sovereign power and human free will or between God's grace, his undeserved goodness, and the place of good works (an issue which Paul & James in their bible letters approach from different angles, which led Martin Luther to describe James as "a right strawy letter"). Our preferences over worship styles can lead to conflict, and so on. Again the need is for balance, as our Lord Jesus' life and teaching shows. We heard today his prayer for his followers to find unity, and to be led by God to right understandings (John 17v20f), and must be open to that prayer's answer.

• What are your prejudices? Are there aspects of God's character you ignore, or other views you fail to learn from?
• Should you join one of our home meetings where you can share with and learn from other Christians so you grow in a balanced understanding?
• How about praying through the list of names & titles the bible gives to the Trinity (which are on the table) to broaden your picture of God?

Let me end with words of St Paul: "I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained." (Philippians 3:14-16).

(by Stephen coffin, 29th August 2004)