As a kid, teeter-totter's were my favorite. I remember playing on one with my little brother. I would have a few minutes of appeasing him, going up and down, up and down. Then, as I reached my feet to the ground again I'd jump off and send him soaring to the ground with a thud. Oh, good times! Suppose your life is this way: On one side sits the practical things of life, on the other side sits the spiritual. If we have too much of one or not enough of the other, we can send one, or the other, or both, soaring to the ground. If we are too practical, we omit the spiritual. If we are too spiritual, we are no earthly good to those around us.
If you look at the dynamics of a teeter-totter, it's a pretty simple design. It's designed for two objects and pivots off of a fulcrum in the middle. So, if we are looking at this as an analogy for our lives, what's our fulcrum? Jesus gave us the ultimate commandment to build our lives around: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your strength,and your mind; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27).
God wants us to love him. Really love him. And he wants us to love each other. Really love each other. Love and Service. These are your two ends of the teeter-totter. Our love for God comes first, but the other two can't be separated. One flows from the other- and back again.
If we use Jesus as our fulcrum, and keep our eyes fixed on Him, he's more than able to achieve a balance in our teeter-totter's. While he is standing in the middle, and we are looking to Him, He can slip a foot over to the "spiritual" side if it's needing some more weight to keep it balanced. And if we seem to be doing to much on our practical side, getting weary and tired, Jesus will tenderly slip a foot out and add a little weight to that side to keep you from soaring to the ground in defeat.
There will be occasions when our service for the Lord will be needed more than our "alone time" with him. There will be times that God calls us to get out of the Living Room (intimacy, aloneness with Him) and step into the Kitchen (serving others) for the moment. Different times call for different measures. But, if your eyes are on the Fulcrum, you can't lose. He will direct and shift the weight where it needs to go to keep your teeter-totter perfectly balanced.
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