Wow! Today’s entry has struck me at my core. BALANCE is a concept that has come up time and again in different areas of my life, such as time management, weight loss, relationships, and self care. And there it is again in the devotional today: “Lent is a time to find balance between healthy desire and lusting after or coveting what is not ours to hold.”
When I retired from teaching a few years ago, I still wanted my life to matter. I wanted to continue to grow as a person and to be able to make a positive difference in the lives of others. A few weeks later, COVID locked us down, and all of our lives suddenly looked different from anything we had envisioned. I felt isolated and disempowered, as I’m sure many of us did.
What did you do to meet your needs for connection? I joined several Zoom groups, some of which are still Zooming, and some of which have moved to meeting in person. I am now involved in 12 different groups! In trying to keep up with all of the expectations for each, I am feeling stretched too far, out of BALANCE. Even though I enjoy all the groups, and none of them represent any inappropriate desires, I can see that I have painted myself into a corner of over-commitment. Maybe I am holding too tightly to that desire to matter?
Now, I find myself so stressed that I don’t think I am making a positive difference. My prayer from today’s devotional is that I will be more open to the Holy Spirit’s leading as to where my strengths lie and how I should be using them.
How do you find–or seek to find–that “balance between healthy desire and lusting after or coveting what is not ours to hold”?