Holy Disruptions and a Balanced Life

Last updated on: April 26, 2012 at 7:40 pm by Amy Julia Becker

Holy Disruptions and a Balanced Life 2012-04-26T19:40:15-04:00 Amy Julia Becker

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Anyone who reads this blog knows I’m someone who loves order and predictability and productivity and, well, balance. I’ve written before about my desire for balance and some of the holy disruptions that push me off-kilter. Having a newborn pushes me off kilter. Or perhaps I should write, a newborn is a holy disruption.

Marilee wakes up at unpredictable hours. She might take three naps in a day. She might take five. And her needs keep changing.

On a more personal note, I open my journal and usually the date of the last entry is at least a week earlier. I open my Bible and can’t remember what I was reading. I tend to forget whether I gave William his medicine today. It took two months for me to refill one of Penny’s prescriptions. Off kilter. Holy Disruption.I recently read an essay in the Christian Century, “In praise of imbalance” by Martin B. Copenhaver. He writes:

The Bible does not extol balance as a virtue. Instead, the Bible commends a way of life that is more about rhythm than it is about balance. There is the rhythm of the week, six days of work and one day of rest, set within the larger rhythms of the liturgical year. Jesus spent time in intense engagement with the people around him in rhythm with time alone or with close friends…

Moses, the prophets and Jesus himself did not lead balanced lives; in fact, their lives were wildly out of balance as they pursued what they took to be God’s call. But they did let their lives sway to holy rhythms.

My life is out of balance right now. But maybe that’s because the rhythm of life with a baby necessitates self-sacrifice and forgetfulness and rubbing my eyes with drowsiness in the middle of the day. Perhaps I’m operating according to holy rhythms. And holy disruptions. How about you?

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