By Keith Jennings

When I think of balance, I picture some daredevil walking a tight rope.  One wrong shift and kersplat!

Balance is popular concept.  We're told that we should eat balanced meals and live balanced lives.

What we mean by this is that we should not put all our eggs in one basket.  Or we should not be too obsessed about a single thing.  In case it doesn't work out.  Or in case it turns out not to be good for us.

I think balance is a myth.  It sounds nice, sure.  But it's the wrong metaphor.

If balance were the ideal, we would have no pro or Olympic athletes.

We would have no Beatles or U2.  No Francis Ford Coppola or Charlie Chaplin.  No Mother Theresa or Ghandi.  I would also argue that we would have no 40-, 50- or 60-year wedding anniversaries either.

Balance suggests a stability through an equal distribution of weight, which doesn't capture the pendulum-like nature of our personalities.

Some days we're happy.  Some sad.  Some mad.

Some days we're extroverted.  Other days, we're introverted.

Some days we're celebrating.  Other days, we're grieving.

How can a human being possible remain constant and stable through the peaks and valleys of life?  We can't.  We're dynamic.  And we're social, which means that our thoughts and behaviors are influenced by what others are doing.

Do you remember what the lawyer asked Jesus in Matthew 22:36? "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Jesus, as only Jesus can, summed the entire kit and kaboodle up in two sentences:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Does this sound balanced to you?  It sure doesn't to me.  Love is an unbalanced and demanding act.

Take parenting.  I can't speak for you, but I haven't found that there's anything balanced about being a parent.  I feel like a haole being thrown off my surfboard every single ride.  I spit the sand and blood from my mouth.  Pick up my board.  And paddle right back out there for the next wave.

Why?  Not because I'm balanced.  Because I am obsessively in love with everything about being a parent.  Even when I laugh and act like Dr. Evil.  And even when I seriously entertain thoughts of sending my kids to military school!  (Any tips on how to get kids to clean their play room are welcome.)

Parenting is something I choose to do, no matter my moods and no matter my circumstances.  It's something I fail at often.  But it's something I will smile and cuss my way through no matter what it costs me financially, emotionally, physically, intellectually or relationally.

To me, serving God is not about balance, because I'm not my own energy source and I'm not in control of my life.

You can spend the rest of your life trying to live "balanced."  As for me, I'm going for broke.  I'm going to burn it at both ends until I'm either hospitalized or dead.  I'm going to love until I have no more love to give.

I'm confident I can pull this off, not because I'm some daredevil on the tight rope keeping my balance.

Nope.  You'll have to look more closely.

I'll pull this off because I am actually the rope.  I am the rope existing in tension, being pulled in opposite directions.

It's the tension created by these opposing forces that produces the energy that gives me life.

It gives you life too.

Keith Jennings is a writer, husband, dad and wandering wonderer based in Atlanta, Georgia.  He heads corporate communications for a consortium of healthcare companies.  Through his blog, Keith offers discoveries and dilemmas that help you find joy and serendipity even when you lose your balance.