When Life Feels Like Walking on a Balance Beam
by Bethany Broderick
I watch my six-year-old daughter’s calf muscles flex as she struggles to remain centered on the balance beam. She tilts to the left, then back to the right, before taking her final trip down the beam in tiny hops.
I clap for her, but my chest tightens. I often feel like I’m walking down my own balance beam. When I think I’ve found my equilibrium—carrying the burdens to care for my family, excel at my work, and be faithful in my ministry—another obligation or crisis knocks me off my feet.
As more is piled onto our schedules, we ask: how can we “balance” it all? Productivity hacks, time management apps, and thick day planners give us the illusion of a well-ordered life. Yet this pursuit places the focus on us—a burden we were not created to bear. It’s a self-centered striving that hinges on our own ability, knowledge, and time.
As Christians, however, we can seek a God-centered lifestyle—one that’s founded on his strength, character, and promises. We can trade the lies about what a balanced life looks like and instead believe that true balance is found in Christ.
Lie #1: You can do it all.
We often believe the lie that we must accomplish all the things we desire in a finite day. We’re pressured to push past the limits of our days, our bodies, and our circumstances. All we must do is try harder, stay up later, and plan better!
We can trade the lies about what life should look like and instead find true balance in Christ.
The idea that we could do it all is a lie straight from the serpent in the garden. In Genesis 3, Satan tempted Eve to move past her good creaturely limits so that she could be “like God.” However, we were not created to be like our limitless God. He made us as limited creatures in his image. That means we can create, love, and grow, but only within the good boundaries God gives us. God has given each of us the beautiful gift of limits for our bodies, minds, and spirits. When we seek to live beyond these limitations, we will always be off balance.
In God’s kingdom, you will only find true balance in your life when you accept the good limitations God has given you.
Lie #2: All you need is the perfect schedule.
When our lives feel too chaotic, we often believe that if we could just achieve the perfect schedule, then our lives would feel balanced again. Yet no to-do list or color-coded calendar can give us peace in life. These tools can’t prevent interruptions like a child getting sick, a car needing a repair, or a friend calling to receive comfort and counsel.
God does not call us to maintain a perfect schedule but to faithfully steward our current stage of life. Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3 that God intentionally designed seasons for everything in our lives. Living a truly balanced life might mean we pursue more rest, such as when we endure illness or tragedy. Sometimes living a balanced life means doing the unseen work of training tiny hearts that won’t bear fruit for years to come.
True kingdom-balance means you can be content with the season in which God has placed you.
Lie #3: You can hold it all together.
When we seek self-centered balance, we are ultimately seeking control. We are tempted to believe that if we can finally achieve balance, then we will be in charge of our lives. We think we can hold our home, our work, and our future in our hands.
Even if we managed to maintain balance for a single day, we still would not be sovereign over our lives. Because our loving God knows his people can’t balance it all, he carries us and asks us to let go of our cares. The more we attempt to tightly grip our schedule, future, and family, the less balanced we will be. Only when we release control of our lives can we experience the gracious providence of God, who keeps our feet from stumbling (Psalm 116:8). When we stop trying to be God, we can finally obey what he has called us to do.
God invites you into kingdom-balance, where you can let go and trust he is holding the universe and your life in his hands.
Pursuing self-centered balance will leave us exhausted by our efforts and frustrated with our inadequacies. When we lay down the burden to do it all—to have the perfect schedule and to hold it all together—we can take up the yoke of Jesus and walk confidently and steadfastly. “For [his] yoke is easy, and [his] burden is light” (Matthew 11:30 ESV).
We can faithfully obey God within the good limitations and seasons he has given us. And we trust that he is holding us and will complete his work in us.
Bethany Broderick is an author and speaker who encourages women to trade shame and striving for wholeness in Christ. @bethanygbroderick