Our eighty-pound lab can really turn on the speed. When we go outside it is like someone strapped a rocket on her back. Her hind legs dig in and off she goes tearing around the yard at top velocity. It’s fun to watch until she makes the far turn and heads back right at me with absolutely no effort to slow down. I can only imagine the devastation to me if she hits me at that speed. I doubt if 911 could help. So I freeze. She is excellent at brushing by, but I have no idea on which side she will pass. If I move at all I am in jeopardy.
As she zoomed by this afternoon I realized how important it is not to be too far to the right or too far to the left. One of my favorite authors made a point about our living balanced lives. Now I know some will say we have to make a commitment in life and we can’t just ride the fence. I would like to take the position that riding the fence IS a commitment. It is difficult to keep one’s balance. It is easy to fall off on either side and it’s not being lukewarm. It is like Goldilocks when she discovered she couldn’t eat the porridge that was too hot or too cold. The middle was just right.
People that are far left often lead us to think that anything goes while people on the far right are often judgmental and make us think their way is the only way. God loves principled thinking. That’s why He gave us the marvelous capacity of thought and freewill. When He made us in His image He set us free to think.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 11, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org