Life is a Highway...

And your ear will hear a word behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30.21

Talkin bout my generation...over coffee
There are certain tendencies in my thinking about God and his Word of late which I find less-than godly. The foremost of these is the tendency to talk incessantly about the theological, methodological, philosophical problems of the Church today, particularly the church in North America. I was rebuked on this account at Starbucks this weekend.
We were talking, Mike, James, Justin, Joe, Susan, Josh, Matt, Allison, Marcy, Ben, and I (these people came and went over the course of a few hours, mind you), about the various needs the church was facing. I was distracted several times by James. The young fiend was never satisfied to just sit and kvetch with me- he kept walking around, sitting with strangers, talking about life and Jesus and all that. When we talked about the problems of the church, people constantly brought up the Bible and God's sovereignty and the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After about 5 hours of this abuse, my arrogance began to be worn down.

You see, I don't always talk about problems in American Christendom because I care about the purity of Jesus' Bride. Maybe God has given me this time at Bible College to look into those things, but I doubt he wants me to put blinders on to block out all the dying and hurting souls along the way. As I sat in that corporate café, I found two values competing for my time, and was convicted that I had not been spending that time better. So, I began thinking about my need to find balance.

Balancing the Scales of Life
In addressing the issue of balance in the Christian life, I have to answer several questions:

1. What are the ideas that should be on the two sides? Balance is usually found when we set some value or idea on a scale against some other, opposite value or idea. Should this scale weigh Theology vs. Evangelism? Relationships vs. Study? New ideas and criticism in the church vs. Submissive service?
   
2. When I have found the opposites to be compared, what means of measurement should be used to weigh them? Snippets of Scripture that support one side or the other? Lengthy logical debate? My own tastes?
3. When one side is preferred, what happens to the idea or value on the other side? Could I safely toss aside the lesser value?

Now, to when I address the first question, I find if I must choose theology or evangelism, this indicates that one is correct and the other is incorrect. However, we find in Scripture not only ample reason for delving into its rich stores of truth, but also the need to proclaim the gospel without fanciness of speech or great demonstration of knowledge.
The means of determining the correct choice requires thought about the authority of Scripture when set alongside other authorities. If texts of Scripture say that challenging old forms ministry is good, and others say that respectful silence toward more mature believers is good, what ability or right have I to decide which texts are God's Word and which are not?
In the end, if both values are good, then neither ought to be tossed outright. Therefore, neither study of the Word nor developing relationships could go. But how then do I make a decision about how to spend my time?
The answer I find is that the Christian life is not a life of balance, at least, not in the tipping scale sense of the word.

The highway of life
The picture God uses for spiritual decision-making is of a road which we travel. This image is used constantly throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms and Proverbs and the Gospels. In fact, the image of a spiritual life as a road is the basis for works of literature like The Canterbury Tales and Pilgrim's Progress, and is the basis for centuries of mystical writing.
When I think about this picture, I often think about choices in my life as forks in the road, where I can pick one path or another. Some choices, I often think, are like 5-Points in Modesto, with many options, all confusedly jumbled together with a lot of angry drivers and such (did I ever tell you about the time I drove up the one way street and cut off a guy when I pulled right onto McHenry? It was like 12.30am and there were about 6 policemen all around Denny's watching me with quizzical expressions...).
However, when I read Isaiah 30.21, it seems like the picture might be better thought of as a highway, with on-ramps and off-ramps. Rather than trying to make countless choices and constantly being presented with options and balancing acts, I am told simply not to turn right or left, not to exit, and to get back on when I get off for whatever reason.

So, that is most of where I am at in this balancing spiel. What do you think? If anyone reads this, then please study up on the way in Scripture and on how we are to make a choice. Then touch that there 'comments' button at the bottom of the post and give the fruit of that study some expression. In particular, try addressing these questions in your study:

• Is life more like a highway, or an urban grid, or a winding country road, or something else?
  
• What is the place of God's sovereignty in our choice-making?
• If we are not supposed to balance these competing values, how then are we to decide how to spend our time? Does it matter?

I'll give some time for some interaction here. What say on Thursday I bring my ideas on those questions, and everyone can shoot them down on Friday or whatever?