Yesterday, Urban Meyer was officially introduced as Ohio State's new football coach. It was interesting to me that most of the talk didn't center around the past successes of Urban Meyer at Florida and Utah, but instead around why he walked away from the game at the end of the 2010 season at Florida. Meyer had walked away because of health and family reasons. During his tenure at Florida Meyer had stopped living a balanced life. He was spending to much time on football related activities and not enough time with his family. Before Meyer took this job at Ohio State he had a meeting with his family in order to get their blessing and talk about how to prevent the same problem from occurring in the future. One of Meyer's daughters even sent him a contract listing things he was to do in relation to the family if he took the job. As I have been reading and digesting this story it brings to light the importance balance can have in life. The only way to truly be successful in life is to live a balanced life. Meyer was uber successful football wise at Florida when he won two national championships, however he realized that it meant nothing to continue winning championships if he did it to the detriment of his family. Here are some reminders of ways for Christians to live a successful life through balance.
1) Balance your relationship between God and the world. It is so important for us to have balance in the way we live in the world. If we become too much in the world then we will fail to fulfill our responsibility to God in living the Christian life. If we live our lives too much away from the world then we can fail to be in the world enough to let our light shine, and evangelize and once again fail to fulfill our responsibility to God. James 4:4
2) Balance your relationship between work and the family. It is also very important as Christians to balance our relationship between work and our family. As a Christian we have a responsibility to work in a way to exemplifies our relationship to God, to work honestly, to fulfill our responsibilities at work, and provide for our families; yet at the same time we must make time for our family as we also have a responsibility to be a good Christian spouse, parent, and child. We have a responsibility to not turn our Children away from the Lord, but instead towards him. This all takes time and balance. Urban Meyer wisely realized how easy it was to start putting more emphasis on success at work to the detriment of his family, and the consequences that could come about as a result. Meyer wisely made sure that he stepped away from his responsibilities until he could find that balance. Ephesians 6:1-9, Matthew 5:14, Proverbs 22:6
3) Balance our knowledge. It is also important to make sure that we balance our knowledge when it comes to the word of God. It is important for us have knowledge of the world and in our specific profession in order to accomplish point # 2. However we must also make sure to not just know the things of the world but also the things of God. It will be impossible for us to accomplish point # 1 without knowledge of the word of God. It will be impossible to have growth as a Christian without Biblical knowledge. We must study to show ourselves approved spiritually and when it comes to our worldly Christian responsibilities. 2 Peter 3:18, 2 Timothy 2:15.
Hosea 7, in one of my favorite books of the Bible, we find that Ephraim was having trouble with balance when it came to mixing with the people of that time. Hosea said that "Ephraim [was] a cake not turned". Hosea was referring to the practice of making cakes during that time period when a rock would be heated up and the cake cooked on it. If the rock was not the right temperature and the cake was not flipped at the right time you would end up with a cake that was burnt on one side and raw on the other. Are you living your life in a way that is balanced spiritually with the things of the world or are you living it in a way that Hosea would call a cake half baked?
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