Keeping Balance

How well do you maintain spiritual balance? When we think about our spiritual health, everyone believes that they are probably doing it correctly. We all, however, tend to gravitate towards an imbalance in some way, and rarely ever notice it. We swing to being easy on ourselves, and think it is "trusting God". Then we swing to being hard on ourselves, and think it is "restoring faithfulness". Both are wrong, but not because trust and faithfulness are wrong. They are wrong because we cannot justify our extremes.

Our society (and its divided nature) encourage us along these lines, and we have to be careful to avoid their temptations. We are polarized into "left wing" and "right wing" (I am not sure why it is "wings" instead of "arms" but that is another conversation). This makes us presume that everything is either on one side or the other and there is nothing in between except an immoral compromise. Actually, in between can often (not always, but often) be a balance.

Furthermore, the position of the "right wing" (which traditional Catholics lean towards) is not always the most solid position, and can sometimes be merely a compromise of the "left wing" position. Do not let yourself be dragged into these polar positions. Seek what is good and right; seek what God has revealed (because it is not necessarily either left or right because He is far above the wisdom of men). Adjust your spiritual direction enough where you can see what is a proper balance -- not a "middle of the road" compromise, but a faithful commitment to what God has revealed regardless of what mankind thinks.