CENTER & BALANCE

Several years ago, I began studying a Japanese Martial Art at Toledo Campus Ministry known as Wa Ai Ju, It’s a blend of Aikido & Jujitsu. Each of the words stands for a fundamental principle of it. Wa - stands for accord/balance of body & sprit, Ai - Spontaneous action or Creativity, Ju - Gentleness. Ok, it’s a martial art, so it’s more like proportional response or using an attackers energy against them.

The fundamental movement of Wa Ai Ju is called Happo Undo, it literally means the Eight Direction Exercise. It is a way to practice our strikes (punches) and kicks, turning in 8 directions around a circle. Early on in my study, I had a real frustration problem, I couldn’t keep in perfect balance as I did it, I would get very frustrated and it showed. Finally, my instructor let me in on the Secret, you can’t do happo undo remaining in center, it off balances you doing it (well it does for her even, number two in the world in the art). It’s not about keeping perfect balance or center, it’s about how fast you can recover it by using your center/core.

But isn’t that life, we all get knocked off balance, constantly, for me this week: a car tire blew out one day, we discovered a bill didn’t get paid on time, the kids were cranky, we had a family wedding to go to that was a five hour round trip on Saturday night, with Cheri needing to preach, etc. As my mother says, “if you don’t have problems to deal with, you’re not alive”.

I kind of felt like Carl Fredricksen, the hero from UP!, which we showed part of in worship. In that movie, Carl finds the love of his life, Ellie, early in life. Ellie and he grow up dreaming of a South American Adventure at Paradise Falls. Becca and Jamie love when she describes South America as “like America, only South”. Carl and Ellie take jobs at the Zoo, in, of course, the South America section, hoping to make their dream a reality. But then, life intervenes. One thing, after another, after another, keeps them from going on the adventure, until it is too late for Ellie.

I can understand the franticness of life getting in the way. The week above is not an atypical week for us. Things in our house get crazy, especially in the morning. Trying to get two kids out the door to school every morning gets a mite crazy. If you want to read more about that, look at my prior blog on My Life the Sitcom. It gets even crazy if Cheri has to run out the door with us.

But most mornings, she and I get a chance to wind down and find our centers before leaving. For me, it comes from walking our dog and getting some other exercise. Cheri get’s her coffee, sits and prays. It’s from that daily exercise that Cheri gets her center to do this. However, I have to let you in on a little secret. This does not come easily to me or even her. That’s right, even Pastor’s struggle with prayer lives. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, as not only do people have struggles with keeping a balance, most churches do to. They struggle with keeping a balance as a group; some struggle as they spend too much time taking care of their own, others burn out trying to do so much justice they forget to take care of their own.

But the journey of being a Christian or a Christian Community is not a sprint, I don’t even think it is a marathon. I tend to think of it as the Iron Man Triathalon (if you don’t know, a group of maniacs go to Hawaii, swim, 2.4 miles in the ocean, get out of the water and ride 112 miles on bicycles, get off the bikes and run a marathon as desert. This is not over the course of days or weeks, but on the same day). It never seems to end. And that’s what life is like, one challenge after another.

Fortunately, Jesus himself taught us how to train our cores for this. In our scripture this week, Luke 6: 6-12, Jesus gets to confront the scribes and the Pharisees and if anyone knew how to off balance Jesus, it was those folks. In this particular story, they try to trip Jesus up, with a violation of the law so severe it could get him killed. Having dealt with them, what does he do, he does worry, doesn’t obsess, he goes off and prays. He re-establishes his center, his connection with God.

It’s the core of prayer and center on purpose that let Jesus do what he needed to do to save us. It’s from that core that has let Cheri do what she needed to do, and not get pulled away from the important things. This balance is how she’s survived the trials of church planting and stayed on the mission that brought us to today. Now as a faith community, we are adopting balance as a core value. Balance in two senses of the word, balance between prayer/study & doing something to make the world better. Also a balance between body & soul.

But this balance individually and collectively does not come easily. It takes daily training. Want to start your training? Take a few minutes each day this week and calm yourself and talk to God. In the coming weeks and months, we will be offering you more chances to exercise your balance - doing and praying, and caring for your spirit and your body. Come and join us.