The importance of balance

Nathan Brown
Master of Arts (Research) student
Avondale College of Higher Education

While waiting for mechanics to service my car, I found a sports bar to watch what became the last game of the National Basketball Association (NBA)’s finals series. I shared the experience with as many as 30 other fans, including three members of the Australian men’s basketball team, staying nearby during their Olympic training camp. The surprising level of interest, for a weekday morning in the suburbs, reminded me of Bill Simmons.

He is the author of The Book of Basketball, a 700-page history of the NBA I ordered online on the recommendation of a friend. As I neared the end of several weeks in which this had been my primary reading matter, I began to feel uneasy about the mass of material devoted to this subject—and the amount of time I had invested in it. And this is just one book by one person about one league of one sport.

Even good things become too much when out of balance. Our lives can be so filled with stuff we miss out on what’s best. This is the seed “[falling] among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants” in the story Jesus told about the sower in his field (Luke 8:7, NLT). It’s too easy to be distracted and “all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so [we] never grow into maturity” (Luke 8:14, NLT).

A quote in the book from former NBA centre Bill Walton seemed to fit with the choice we need to make to focus on what and Who is most important: “Look at the forces fighting against the choice. Look at the forces pushing you to make the other choice, the wrong choice. It’s all about you. It’s all about material acquisition, physical gratification, stats and highlights. Everywhere you go, you’re bombarded with the opposite message of what really matters.”

It’s probably true for basketball superstars; it’s definitely true for our spiritual lives—Jesus said so.