Are Your Scales Balanced?
Even without hearing the details about what is being weighed, we all understand that scales are meant to be balanced. For years, they have been used to weigh things from grain to gold. Even the “Scales of Justice” represent the balance of impartiality, fairness and the weighing of facts. If the scales are out of balance, there is a problem.
EXCEPT…
Except when we weigh the place that God deserves in our hearts compared to everything else. God’s importance should always be more. I mean more than EVERYTHING. Sure, it makes sense that God should be more important than bad things. But, God should also be more important than even good things. All of the earthly good things. God ALWAYS deserves more. More of us. More of our love. More of our attention.
So, what happens when our hearts are out of balance in the other direction? Idolatry happens. In his book “Lead”, Paul David Tripp says that “Idolatry is when the glory of God the Creator is exchanged for the glory of the created thing.” Even good things can become ruling things. We often and easily give priority to or more attention to things like our jobs, our children or families, our possessions, our status, our hobbies or sports teams. Ouch.
Tripp goes on to say this:
“Every good thing that takes on more weight than God intended becomes a bad thing; something disruptive and dangerous.”
“Our hearts struggle to keep things in their right place, so we don’t always think, desire, live, relate, plan, and decide with a proper sense of balance. Certain visions, desires and created things take on greater weight in our hearts than they were meant to take and throw our lives out of balance. What is important to God isn’t always important to us. What God knows is needful for us isn’t always needful to us. What God says we should treasure, at street level we don’t always treasure. Things gobble up more space in our hearts than they should, and things that should have prominence in our hearts often don’t. The brokenness, drama, pain and sadness in our lives are the result not just of the imbalance around us, but also of the imbalance that still exists inside us. Thankfully, by the power of divine, transforming grace we are being progressively brought into greater balance, and we live with the surety that someday balance will be fully restored inside and around us”.
So, I challenge you to check your life. Is your job too heavy on the scale? Is your debt or uncertainty about the future consuming your thoughts? Is unforgiveness, pride or division standing in the way of grace in your life? Is your dedication to all of the other things robbing your family of time that they deserve? If all of these things (and plenty more) are adding to the “life” side of your scale, then how can the “God” side possibly outweigh them in terms of importance and your love?
Time to check those scales, friends!