For most of us we view life as if it were a pizza pie (or a cake if you like) which is divided into eight to ten slices. Normally this would include our Physical, emotional, psychological, social, educational, career, spiritual, financial, personal, etc… and true enough these are part of our lives. But the problem occurs when we try to balance it. Yep you heard me right, problems occur when we view our life like this (I use to have a view like this as well).

I’ll give you an example, assuming that you are very ok with your physical, emotional, spiritual and for most aspects of your life but you fail on the financial part, you’ll view life as incomplete. We struggle and we say :”if only my finances were ok then I’ll be balanced and live a good life”. And so what do you do? You work and work and make ways to earn more money and in the process you lose your health, your relationship with your family, and the more important things in life. Often times we view as if we are inferior to the ones who are doing good at the aspect that we are not and we envy and look down on ourselves.

Or consider this, a person who is very good and close to God but is physically debilitated, would that person be less of the person compared to the one who is earning lots of money but  has a rotten spiritual life and family life? Again, consider this: there are but a few people who reach that level of “balance” where in they are good (or atleast doing average) in their slice of life, and when they say that they achieve that “balance” they say that they did quite good.

A.W. Tozer called this the “sacred-secular anti-thesis’ , while John Ortberg called it “A well Balanced life”(a sarcasm).

I hope you see the EVIL in it. It’s evil in many accounts:

First you pursue balance and not God!

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – matthew 6:33 (NIV)

It says pursue God and not balance! His kingdom, not the fact that you are doing good in your “slice in life”

Second: You envy

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. – James 4:1-3 (NIV)

Third either you become so full of yourself (Pride because you felt you achieve that certain balance), or you look down on yourself because you fail to balance it.

And most importantly and the most dangerouse reason while this is evil is (the way I see it):

We view that GOD doesn’t care and has no part in other aspects of our life because we boxed Him in a tiny ‘Slice’ of our lives.

Jesus, while he was human was poor, does that mean he didn’t live a balanced life pleasing to God? Imagine if Jesus had a checklist:

Physical: Fit and buff

Intelligence: wise

Social: Influential

Spiritual: Excellent

Financial: Major fail

Funny right? But Jesus was complete!

That is why we view God only in a Sunday, that’s why we have Sunday Christians. Those people who view God to be only in a building in a particular day of the week and hour of the day. Why some of us act and speak good in a Sunday hour (not even a day) but curse, lust and freely sin the rest of the days.

John Ortberg in his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted called for a well ordered life. Tozer rallied a pursuit of God in all aspects in our life

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:17 (NIV)

It says ALL. I rally that we view life as a complete pizza, without slices (sticking to my craving and illustration earlier) and God as the plate in the sense that we are the mercy of his hands and we completely rely on Him. Let him be above, below,in and through our lives. Check the bible and there is no secular-sacred division, for God the whole of our life should be sacred. Again it says ALL.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” – Romans 12:1 (NIV)

Living sacrifice means not dead. Not dead means you and me because you are reading this blog. Living sacrifice means you and what you are doing. Does it honor God?

Everything comes from him;
Everything happens through him;
Everything ends up in him.
Always glory! Always praise!
Yes. Yes. Yes. – Romans 11:36 (message)

I’ll leave with the paraphrased verse of the message version of Romans 12:1-2

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

The goal of our life is to please Him. To lift up our complete lives to him. Our life and everything we do with it.

That is the only way to live.