"Who wants to be BALANCED?"

"True Balance is in the Body of Christ"by Don Nori
Web: http://www.radicalgrace.org/ http://www.mercyplace.com/

I hate balance. There is nothing more boring than listening to a balanced person. He spends so much time building walls around what he says that he says nothing at all. People who say they are balanced are too concerned about being acceptable. I am not concerned about being acceptable. My concern is yielding enough to the One who possesses me from within that He can do through me whatever He wants to do. I hate balance. Folks who are balanced never change the world. They never affect society. They live safely within the boundaries of the status quo, never challenging the forces that control society, the culture, or the church system. They believe that by reinforcing what is, they will encourage folks to move on. Fact is, balance is the bane of progress. It leads us to believe everything is as it should be, when in reality we are desperate for change, anxious to see and hear from the Lord concerning the things still locked in the heavens. Though the heavens are pregnant with His purposes and eternity dips into time and space, balanced folk explain away the restlessness within. Balanced folk redirect our focus to what has always been. They have the uncanny ability to make the hungry feel guilty for their hunger and the restless feel rebellious for their questions. Balanced people are what everybody likes to have under their control. Balanced people don't ever rock the boat. But the Reformation never would have happened without imbalance. The Renaissance never would have happened without imbalance. The great revivals never would have happened without imbalance.
Imbalance is the key to our growth. It questions what we have done, why we are doing it, and where we are going.

An Adventure Waiting to Happen
Balance tries to convince us there is nothing new under the sun - when in fact everything is new under the sun. Balanced folk love to quote a frustrated and depressed old man who cries out in his depression, "There is nothing new under the sun!" But to our tiny masses of gray matter, everything is absolutely new. God may know everything, but I sure don't. For me, every day is an adventure waiting to happen. Every day is an irreplaceable opportunity to see, hear, and do things I have never even imagined could happen. Each day holds the possibility...no, the probability...no, the certainty that the heavens will open above me, and His Presence will flow within me creating an atmosphere of wonder and awe that will most certainly change me and the world around me. To be sure, there is nothing new to the Lord, but for us there are new mercies, new hopes, new possibilities opened to us every day if we are unbalanced enough to be open to them.

God Talks to Us Outside of the Box
God always talks to us outside the box we have constructed for ourselves. You know that box. It keeps you safe and assured that you are fine just as you are. Our nature is to always define circumstances, feelings, dreams, hopes, and possibilities within the parameters of what has always given us contentment. This box assures us that we are, well, balanced. But this thought is not new. Humans have always tried to re-box what God has un-boxed. Jesus warned us not to put new wine into old wineskins. Yes, the most boring person in the universe is a balanced person.

Church as We Know It is Over
The true pastor must minister from two perspectives. He will always be a pastor, looking out for the well-being of the people. But he will also be open to the new things God will speak to the people, even if what God says is out of the pastor's experience. His concern is for the safety of the flock, but his concern is also for the Church coming into the dream God has dreamed for each individual. He understands that heaven is our destination, but it is not our destiny. The Lord will send many to him to train, equip, and send off to who-knows-where. Not everyone God sends to him is there to expand his ministry. Believers should mostly come to go. They come to be trained and go to fulfill their destiny. The pastor must be sure of who he is and where he is, without feeling threatened when God sends someone with a greater gift than his own. He must always be secure and free enough to equip, train, and then release. He will most certainly have a base of permanent folks whose ministry it is to care for the needs and train those whom God sends. The Church becomes what God intended it to be - a school for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. The five-fold ministry are not the ones that travel the world. They equip and send out those whom they have trained.

Spiritual Specialists?
Why is it that when doctors study a specified medical area they are called specialists, but when Christians give themselves to a specialized area they are called unbalanced? Doctors must rely on their relationships with other doctors whose specializations are different from their own, thereby having experts in areas they know little or nothing about. Specialists in the medical profession build relationships with other doctors whose opinions they not only trust, but rely upon. This is a normal and expected practice. A doctor who tries to be individually thorough in his understanding of the intricate workings of the entire human body is, ironically, considered ineffective. He dismisses himself from the treasure of information and technique available to those who accept their own personal and professional limitations. The day of the general practitioner is quickly coming to an end. The day of the church system's one-man-show is too.

God Sounds Outrageous
God speaks to us outside of our paragons. Everything He says to us sounds outrageous. Our tendency is to dismiss those things that are risky. But when we dismiss the outrageous, we too often dismiss God. When God says something to us that we have never heard before, it often sounds exciting, even though it may bring fear to our hearts. Sometimes that fear turns to exhilaration at the thought of doing something so different. Subconsciously, however, we take a familiar course of action. In our minds, we visit all the people who are important to us to determine how they will react to this outrageous thing we have just heard. Once the votes are cast, most of the time we dismiss this outrageous, albeit exhilarating, thing we have heard, simply because most of the people we care about and who are important to us dismiss it. Even though we believe it, even though it made our heart sing and burn within us, we reject it because our friends have too. That is why so many end up doing what has always been done. Too many people fear the outrageous. They fear anything that God says outside the box they have created for themselves, which, by the way, they have secretly learned to despise. We all like to think of ourselves as so open-minded, so charismatic, so Spirit-filled, when in fact we have created a box in which everything we believe is locked. It keeps us balanced.
Balanced people never change the world. They put you to sleep.
Balance is not in the person.
Balance is in the Body of Christ.

Go Fly a Kite
When I was a kid, I loved to fly kites. My mom would often say to my twin brother, Ron, and I, "Boys, why don't you guys go fly a kite?" So we would. We spent hours in the golden meadows and fossil beds next to our rural Pennsylvania home. A kite is an awesome thing. Even in a shallow wind, it is determined to fly. As the wind grows stronger, the kite's paper panels stretch out as it soars for the heavens, as though never to return. Did you ever notice that a kite never seems to be content as it responds to the wind? As it pulls the string from the one holding it on the ground, the kite goes up as though on some secret mission. The kite has no concept that there is a limit as to how far the string will allow it to go. I was often the one holding the roll of string as the kite pulled away from us on its quest to go higher. The roll burned my fingers as we heard the whiz of the string chasing the kite heavenward. The wind often carried the kite until all the string was off the roll. We could barely see the kite, now only a dot against the sun-lit sky. I always hated when I was out of string, for it created a dilemma. It is never the kite that limits its own flight. The string is always the bad guy. When the string was out, I either had to run with the kite or pull it back down. The kite usually pulled so hard that I feared for the kite. I never really was certain how much stress the string could take before it snapped. So I would run with the kite. I would run until there was some sort of danger. Power lines, a tree, another kite, a highway...all were hindrances to the kite's ability to soar with the wind or my ability to give it what it really wanted: more string.

The Kite is Completely Sold Out to the Wind
All that kite wanted to do was fly, and there was no convincing it that imminent danger was ahead. The kite had captured the wind and wanted nothing more than to go with it, to yield to it, to go as far and as high and as fast as the wind dare take it. But when the string was gone, tension would mount and the exhilaration of the day quickly turned into stress as the battle to pull it back in ensued. I had to somehow work the string so as to gently bring the kite safely back to the ground. As many of you know, this is not an easy assignment. The kite is completely sold out to the wind and has no intentions of responding to someone earthbound and unable to experience the exhilaration of this kind of flight. I can still almost hear the kite as it battled for its life, "What are you doing? I thought you loved to fly! Let me go!" So the tension on the string grew as I called the kite back to earth. In my desire to give it string and yet protect it to fly another day, I found myself taking risks I would normally not take. I wanted it to soar on, but I did not want to lose the kite. Although I knew the string was essential to the kite's survival, it seemed the kite was begging to be released from what it perceived as unnecessary bondage. It was as though the kite wanted to cut its only connection to the ground. The irony is amazing. As soon as the kite gets its way, is freed from the string, it is doomed to crash, usually broken beyond repair.

Who Wants to be a Kite?
God-breathed friendships are like boys flying a kite. Sometimes you are the kite and sometimes you are the guy on the ground holding the string. I am free to be Spirit-blown into whatever God is calling me to be. I am free to catch the highest wind and go to places in the Spirit that I have never explored. But this is because I am in relationship with one or two who I know have my best interest at heart. Their only desire is for my well-being. I am convinced they have no personal agenda, no secret desires, or need to profit from any success I may have. I never have to be concerned that they will become jealous or envious of how I am used of the Lord. I am at peace with the knowledge that their prayer for me is pure and their desire for my success is genuine. The counsel I get is intended to bless and encourage, not to dominate or control. Their motivation is not jealousy or envy. It is love. As in any true covenant relationship, their hands are open, willing either to release or be wrong. Their love, prayers, and support do not waver by my decisions. Conversely, they carry in their heart the same understanding and confidence about my intentions toward them. This kind of relationship cannot be legislated or assigned. It cannot be determined by geographic region or personality test. It is determined by a heart-to-heart covenant that is tested and proven in the crucible of trial and fire. It develops over time as men and women make a daily conscious decision to respond to others as they themselves want to be loved and cared for. This place of trust in the heart of another can never be imposed; it can only be earned. To these folks, prayer is more than laying on of hands. To them, genuine relationship is in the laying on of the heart. The relationship that allows you to be everything you can be is born out of mutual respect, mutual honor, and of course, genuine love. These individuals believe in the calling that is on one another's life. They love, pray, trust, and give room to fly even when the skies are not so clear.
The balance is in the Body. It is not in me.

Out of String
Yes, there are times when the person on the ground is out of string. He feels the pressure of the kite pulling on his better judgment as it flies into uncharted skies. Sometimes it takes all his strength and faith to hold onto that relationship. Sometimes he will run down the street so the kite has more room to fly. When he runs out of street, he runs across the field, holding onto that kite string and praying that soon the kite will catch a smooth wind and settle in. Sometimes the way comes to an end and the strength of the string is tested to an extreme measure. But this situation is exactly why they have been forging a strong bond of covenant all this time. The relationship can stand the test of love and commitment when the mutual sense of covenant has been seared into their hearts. A broken string benefits no one. Without its tension, the kite falls to the ground. The very thing it wanted and desired becomes its downfall - its destruction. Instead of soaring higher and higher, it finds itself broken on the ground or torn by the limbs of a tree. The thing that gave it the power to soar is the one and same relationship that ultimately keeps it in touch with time and space. But the kite is not the only one affected. The one on the ground never would have looked up had the kite not been flying. He never would have been challenged to peer into things he has never before seen. If he were not looking up to the kite, he would never see the world as his friend sees it. He would have missed an essential element of God's heart for the nations. Because he is holding the kite, he cannot help but be affected by the wind that carries the kite heavenward.

We All Need Someone
Of course, this example will work in nearly every relationship in which we find ourselves engaged. I need the ones God puts in my life, and they need me. The prophetic slobbering of a prophet alone will drown the hearer in mystical saliva. The dusty words of a didactic teacher will choke even the most fervent believer. But when the prophet's slobber is mixed with the teacher's dusty words, they form a salve that will always open the eyes of the blind. We must let the ones we love fly. For we will never be satisfied until we ourselves are freed to fly. So we bathe one another in prayer with full confidence in the One who sends the wind and blows it under our wings. This is the freedom to soar. The balance is in the Body. Not in me.
by Don Nori