The World Race, by it’s very design, has shattered everything I once knew as truth.
Eight months ago I entered into this thing with a very closed mindset, surely I already knew everything. I had spent years of my life deciding for myself what was truth; truth about God, truth about the church, truth about the world, truth about other people, even truth about myself. I prided myself in holding firm to my established beliefs.
I can tell you honestly that none of those truths that I clung to so tightly for so long hold true for me today.
Not one.
(Well, except that whole Jesus died for our sins part, that’s still true.)
They have all been called into question, re-evaluated, physically proven incorrect, and re-established with an “actually, I know nothing about anything” mindset.
And it feels like every time I think I have answered a question, ten more come up.
But it’s no longer about what is true and untrue, it’s all a balance.
Everything.
Everything is a balance.
There’s a balance between being super spiritual and being down-to-earth.
There’s a balance between opening up to people and becoming too dependent on them.
There’s a balance between being overly compassionate and overly truthful.
There’s a balance between being flexible and being firm in the things that have to happen.
Between trusting the Lord to keep you safe and being smart about your surroundings.
Between taking everything to heart without question and being closed minded.
Between finding joy in the Lord and not ignoring your struggles.
Between having patience with people and being honest with them.
Between trusting the Lord to provide for you and taking initiative to make things happen.
Between being willing to change and not compromising who you are.
Between waiting patiently on the Lord and wrestling Him for the blessing.
Everything is a balance.
And the more I learn that everything is a balance, the more I learn that no one really knows where the balance is.
So I’ve decided that it’s about perspective.
Back in Uganda, there was a day when Jared, Samantha, and I walked the 30 minute walk into town to use the internet. On the way back home, one of my walking buddies looks off to the side and, motioning to “The Pork Joint” says, “That’s disgusting.” The Pork Joint is not an uncommon site in Mukono, it is simply a 6’x4′ wood-planked shack with day-old pig carcass, covered with flies and drying out in the African sun, hanging from a rusty metal hook over the wooden, blood-stained counter. I replied to my grossed out friend, “That’s where Alice and I went to buy dinner for the team last night.” The evening before, it had never even crossed my mind that this was gross or unusual, it’s just life in Uganda and I had adapted my perspective to it.
Sick story? Yes. But it really got me thinking about perspective.
Maybe the balance lies in the perspective.
Maybe there isn’t a set standard of balance, maybe there is no definite right or wrong, but the answer lies in the way the specific situation is perceived.
But then, is our perspective correct?
Maybe, if we had a kingdom perspective.
