The Blessing of Balance….
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
-Thomas Merton
Most of us strive for inner peace but in our world of excess and constantly evolving complexities, it is hard to achieve. We equate progress with more, not less and we embrace a mindset that we can be happy if we can just achieve the goals, accumulate the things or acquire the status for which we have been working so hard for so long. This is life in our material world.
But the spiritual life has nothing to do with all of this. And our friend and guide, Thomas Merton reminds us with his quote that in fact balance is a greater sign of our contentment. It may even be a sign of our spiritual maturity- the measure by which we can claim to have achieved, if that is the right word, in the spiritual life.
Oh, blessed balance! We have to work at it but I suspect it is more gift than grunt work. I’ve found that balance in my life is more likely to surface when I have chucked the well worn path of my own will and hopped on to the high way of God’s will. I am able to do this when I focus on the ways of some of my favorite saints… Therese, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Edith Stein, Benedict Joseph Labre, and of course, Mary, our Blessed Mother…they all seemed to have the balance thing down pat.
In fact, I’ve never seen a frantic saint, have you? And since saints seem to be the experts in walking in the will of God, it must mean that they also enjoy order, rhythm, and harmony too. So can we.
Lord, lead me onto the path of your will. Bring balance, order, rhythm and harmony into my life.
Lead me away from intensity into the gentle comfort of your light so that I might be more like you and your Mother, at peace and full of your grace. Amen.