Balance

When I began walking unassisted again last month, after three months of wheelchairs and crutches, I new I would have to get my muscles back in shape so I’ve been walking a few kilometres each day.  The surprise, as I wrote last time, was that my balance had been affected.  I could stand on my left foot, raise my right and put on my sock or shoe, but I could not do the same if I tried to stand on my right foot.  The fine muscle movements for balancing were not there and I wobbled and toppled and had to reach out and hang on to something.  I could not balance on my right foot. 

Walking a few kilometres each day has been easy but it didn’t seem to be helping my ability to balance on my right foot.  I saw a tiny bit of progress, but not much.  I could balance on my right foot for a couple of seconds, but no more.  Frustrating when I can balance on my left foot for as long as I want.  This morning I lifted my left foot, balanced on my right, and everything was okay.  I put on my sock and continued to stand on one foot.  My balance, which had been pretty well non-existent yesterday, was almost normal today.  I did pray about it yesterday, probably the first and only time I have prayed about my balance, but could that have been all that was needed?  I don’t like to claim a divine touch if that’s not what it was, but on the other hand I don’t want to say the Lord didn’t do it.  I think He did.  I am happy.  But the whole thing led me to think about balance in all aspects of our lives.  It is so hard to find balance.  We have family and work and the Lord and leisure time and hobbies and church and ...   How do we find balance, so we’re giving attention to all the important things in life?  I think the key is the same one I finally resorted to when I couldn’t balance on my right foot.  We need to pray.  We need to ask the Lord to order the things in our life, give us balance, show us what really is important.  We need to ask Him to teach us how to push aside the things that are inconsequential so we can concentrate on the things which are important.  And having Jesus at the centre of my life and the centre of all I do is the most important thing of all.

I am very happy to be able to balance on my right foot again.  It may seem like a small thing, but when you hike and climb up mountains and ski and do all sorts of outdoor activities, it really is important.  Even more important is getting our life in balance, and asking the Lord to help is the way to do it.