Balancing the Good with the Bad

Verses:  Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

My thoughts about the verses:

Have you ever played on a teeter-totter?  You and a friend try to make each other rise up and down from the ground into the air.  The closer you are to the same weight the more balanced the ride.  Yet, as the weight gets larger in distance the whole game changes, the teeter-totter gets imbalanced.  One person is usually up in the air a whole lot longer than the other.  The one person that is smaller has to do a lot more to get the other person in the air.  It can get even crazier if more than one person jumps on one side of the teeter-totter.  This usually leads to one person just stuck up in the air.

Which do you think is more fun for all involved?  Do we believe someone that is left up in the air is having a lot of fun?  When I was in school this even became a way of bullying.  I can remember the one time that a whole group of kids jumped on the other side and had me dangling from the air.  I couldn’t make it come down at all.  There I was stuck up in the air and everyone laughing at me. 

We have to look at life the same way.  Sometimes we equally do the same amount of good things that God has blessed us with yet at the same time we do bad things.  Yet, there are people who do nothing but things that we will have to account for at judgement.  Then there are people that live a life dedicated to Jesus.

Now going on the theory of the teeter-totter if everything is equal we have the same momentum on both sides.  Yet, when it is our life on the line do we want to maintain equality?  When it stays balanced it means that we enjoy the goodness of life yet we do things that keep us astray from God.  We have good days when we only do positive things for the glory of God.  We also have days that we go astray.  We teeter between doing well and falling to our temptations.  Yet, we are always struggling to keep our feet firm on the ground.

Then there are those people that are on the teeter-totter and stuck up in the air.  They have let the things that lead to judgment, weigh them down.  Instead of doing the good God has given us in moderation.  They have over indulged.  They have allowed temptation to take control of their life.   They are trying to balance the world on their own.  Yet, they have found that they do not have the strength to get themselves back down on the ground.  They often times do not even realize that they are where they are on the teeter totter of life.  Once they do a lot of times they are okay where there are.  Yet, many who find this out want to change where they are so that they can get their feet flat on the ground.

Those that have discovered that they need help to change their lives have the best help of all.  Those that do not come to that understanding will face judgment on their own.  The people that have come to the conclusion that they need to change and let their temptations slip away have hope.  Jesus is waiting to jump on their side to bring them back into the fold.  If they ask Jesus to come into their life they will no longer be stuck in the air.  They become Christians with Jesus helping them equalize their life.

What happens when we open our hearts to Jesus?  Does our life return to an equally balanced state?  When we ask Jesus into our life things change forever.  No longer are we stuck in the air falling to our temptations all the time.  Instead Jesus jumps on our side of the teeter-totter of life.  When this happens our feet are firm on the ground.  We are no longer at equilibrium. 

Does this mean that we will never sin?  I would love to answer yes to this question.  Yet, the answer is no, we will sin.  Here is the difference when we have Jesus in our life we are covered with the saving grace of the blood of the perfect lamb.  Yes we will sin but we will not be going through it all alone.  Instead Jesus is there helping us get back firm on the ground. 

There are times when our teeter-totter is perfectly balanced.  Does this mean that Jesus has gotten off our side of the scale?  The answer is no.  Jesus is still there with us, yet we have chosen to do badly.  It is in those equal times in our life that we as Christians need to call out to Jesus.  We need to turn over what has led us to be tempted.  You will soon find if you do this you will again return to the time your feet are planted firm on the ground.

  

Prayer:

We parse you God for your ever enduring love.  We praise you for the strength that you give us each day.  We thank you for your life saving death and resurrection.  Help us to stop the teetering of life.  We ask that you come into our heart and cleanse us from our trespasses.  In the name of the Messiah we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Have you accepted Jesus in your life?  Are you stuck in the air because of your acceptance of temptations in your life?  Have you asked Jesus to help you get your feet firm on the found?  What do you need to change today so that you can live with the peace that comes from the saving grace of Jesus?