Transcript
Shalom is perfect, God-created balance. Everything in its right place doing exactly what it was meant to do. I love the picture in Genesis 1 of shalom. Most people when they hear the word shalom, they think it means peace and that's surely an aspect of shalom. But Shalom actually means everything in its place, everything doing what it is supposed to do, no disorder at all. And so, once the fall enters and shalom is shattered, it's very easy for us to get things out of balance.
Ministry Is Not the Only Thing
If you're in ministry, ministry is not the only thing of importance in your life. The nurture of your own soul is important, your devotional relationship with God, your normal relationship with the body of Christ. You need the body of Christ in your life.
If you're married, your relationship with your spouse is dramatically important. If you have children, the impact of your life on your children is something that is terribly important, so you've got things to balance and maybe one of the definitions of idolatry is things out of balance.
Idolatry is not just being enslaved to bad things. Idolatry is when good things become ruling things, then they become idolatrous things. And so, if something is out of my balance, if my family is feeling like they've been forsaken because I'm in ministry, it's because something in ministry has become too important to me and so, I'm making bad choices on the other end.
Look, you'll never, ever get ten days in a week. You'll never get 28 hours in a day. If something becomes more important to you than it should because you don't have that extra time, it will eat into something else that's important in your life and things in your life will get out of balance. A spiritually healthy ministry community is going to be discussing balance, is going to be concerned about balance, is going to make sure that things are in balance for everybody that's part of that leadership community.
