Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World

by Eric Carbaugh

Finding Balance

Balance is a lofty idea that so many cultures, experts, gurus, TV evangelists, teachers, professors, politicians, etc., have talked about since the beginning of time. Balance is for sure something that any person needs not only in natural life but also in their mental, emotional, sleep, and spiritual well being. Balance has come with many names or alias’ over time. Our day’s real issue is that balanced cannot always be achieved every day, and sometimes never for so many.

Then, how in the world do we find balance? This question is asked by so many or substituting “world” for other “colorful” words. This question has the built-in answer all by itself. You will never, and I mean never, find balance in the world, hades, the “f” bomb, politics, media, entertainment, substance, or anything else on earth. There’s not a sure-fire, three keys, or three bullet point list type of answer. It’s not that simple! Many times we don’t even know we’re out of balance.

We look all around, and we see an unbalanced world. We ask ourselves how can society move forward. I see people so mixed up that they don’t know whether they should friend or unfriend someone based on comments made that do not line up with their own or taught bias. I see people that don’t talk to friends, family, or co-workers because they voted for the Democrat, Republican, didn’t vote at all or vote for anyone but the top two parties. I see racism, and I see false calls of racism all around to maintain control of “the people.” I see divided people in every place in the world today. We have to stop, but while you’re blaming another side, the elite are back laughing while controlling the populace. There is so much power in “the people” when they stop being wayward sheep and become unified regardless of race, culture, affiliation, or what have you. Societal balance comes from unity but can never be achieved until we get to personal harmony.

Broken people continue to break people. The more broken people seem to be our politicians, educators, and media personalities. The more broken try to fix society from their own brokenness, the more we have built-in biases that break culture. The only fix to this is where everyone has a seat at the table and not just a select few.

A person can impact the lives of six to ten people in their sphere of influence. This influence can have an exponential force multiplication to change the world around them, whether for the good or bad. A balanced individual is a crucial component to a positive change around them and beyond. We must now ask ourselves, “will I be this crucial change for a positive world?”

The crux of this article revolves around a simple yet complex concept. A concept that I call “The Purpose Triangle”. It’s more than a triangle as much as it is also a ven diagram in a triangle form. Although there are three distinct keys to a balanced life, many blendings make the “Purpose Triangle” flow in full force.

The Purpose Triangle

It is not a coincidence that I chose the Trinity knot to demonstrate this concept. You must critically interweave the three parts of Spiritual, Mission/Purpose, and Life/Family to produce harmonic balance in your life. I enjoy sailing as it is a perfect balance of water, wind, and the vessel in a carefully choreographed dance to go fast and smooth without tipping. If the mast or sail is too large or takes too much wind, the boat will capsize. If the ballast or daggerboard is too small, then the boat capsize. If you’re already running with a good wind, and there’s a large enough gust, you could topple. Likewise, if any facet of these three wings is too large or too small, an imbalance occurs.

The most straightforward facet to explain is your mission or purpose, and yet this can be daunting for some when they don’t understand the purpose or mission in life. There’s good news because this gets formed through the other two facets as they come into focus. Simply put, your mission/purpose is the drive or direction that is calling you to focus your life. Purpose goes beyond a job, a career, a dream, and it’s much bigger than yourself. Purpose, much like warriorhood, is an ancient calling into your very soul and becomes your DNA.

Life and family balance should be a key virtue that we all strive to achieve. Nothing is more important than family, and more so a strong structured family. The sad truth too often is these ties breakdown early in the lives of so many. Often this is due to being born into families of broken people. Whether it’s abuse, albeit verbal or physical, parents putting work ahead of the family, unrealistic standards or expectations, or just attitudes colliding, this poses a lousy recipe for more broken people. Many times this has nothing to do with the fault of the individual. However, there is hope for a balanced life always found in the spiritual facet of the “Purpose Triangle.

When we put every effort into building crucial, strong family ties, we begin to find purpose. A healthy family is not only a badge of honor but also the cornerstone of a robust and healthy society. There’s a reason that the enemy of this world has been an all-out assault on the family’s very fabric since the beginning of time. When the family’s Biblical worldview is adhered to in society, we have this robust and healthy society. Yes, I am talking about the patriarchal framework of the family. I’m not talking about a domineering father and husband who is so rigid that there’s fear in the family. I’m not talking about an abusive father or husband or a boy posing as a man who thinks his wife must submit to his desires. Yes, the Bible mentions a wife to submit, but the Bible also talks about a husband loving his wife as Christ does the church. These are essentially two sides to a coin. If a husband loves his wife as Christ does the church, he will protect her, support her, and be everything she needs him to be. Then, wives will naturally be the support her husband needs to thrive in society and the family. They are equals in so many ways, yet there’s a support structure in each of them that creates balance.

Generations before us and this current generation have so much wrong with the ideal family that it’s no wonder society is so confused. Parents should be stern and disciplined with their children while becoming a launching pad to succeed far above they could ever dream. Essentially, as parents, our ceiling should be the floor our kids’ successful future gets set. Children should always have the tools they need to be more successful in every aspect of their lives that they find their own “purpose triangle” faster.

Finally, Spiritual is this last facet, which is the most important one of all three. Spirituality is the pinnacle and foundation facet at the same time. Whether you believe in the Bible or you don’t doesn’t matter. There’s a void in the soul of each person’s must be filled by the right element. In Ephesians 1:4, the Bible tells us that we were in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. This scripture means we had a purpose for life before the “big bang” ever happened.

There are so many smaller attributes of life that go hand in hand with these three facets of the “purpose triangle” to help make up our harmonic balance. You will always find these attributes in the arrows and in-betweens of the graphic.

Go out, dream big, take risks, find your purpose, and exercise the “purpose triangle” to find your balance in life.

Image Credit: Purple Bullet “Sunset on Lake Tahoe (Sand Harbor)” https://www.flickr.com/photos/purple-bullet/29846185870/

Comments |183|

Re: Elenaloows  Cancel

Legend *) Required fields are marked
**) You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
Category: Encouragement | Purpose