TENSION

I use to think the pivotal word in life was balance. It came out in almost every discussion I had about aspects of my life like work versus family, responsibility versus play, waste versus recycling and on and on. Since I work fulltime and I enjoy what I do almost to the point of getting lost in it . . . at some point in my desire to feel good about home I had to ask myself what my priorities were and when it came down to it I had to BALANCE work and family. They both are important and truthfully I know family and relationships are so much more lasting but work has its place, too, and if it gives one purpose as my work does as well as enable me to live comfortably – it’s like a double dip. And so it goes BALANCE is needed in every aspect whether it be your responsibilities, diet, relationships, hobbies, faith, exercise, sleep, work or even play.

But I have learned something new and it almost hurts because it is so true! Balance although still true might be substituted by another concept that seems more visual and for me a bit more of a fit when it comes to life and trying to explain how we as humans attempt to deal with the everyday grind of it all and that concept is TENSION.

This topic of tension came up as one of my dear friends and a true kindred spirit and I were sipping iced and calorie packed coffee drinks at the local Caribou about 10 a.m. one day last week. We were talking about the STUFF that happens in our lives and if you don’t already know this for a fact - you will find out that bad things happen to everyone, including sinners and saints, and she mentioned that one of our resident teacher/preacher/philosopher types described how we ought to live as though “living in the tension of life”.

I began ruminating over that thought, about the tension necessary to sew something as easy as two pieces of fabric together and you must have a tension on the thread so the pieces of fabric stay together and fit snuggly. If you don’t have enough tension the pieces of fabric will likely look loose, fit badly and possibly come undone. If you have too much tension the seams will pucker and again a bad fit is the result and what you made lasts not long enough, is good for nothing or deeply flawed.

TENSION is a stress or pull but there is more than that - - - it is the right amount of stress or pull. And it isn’t just a matter of holding something it is grasping it with the right amount of pressure – are you seeing what I am saying why this truth is SOMEWHAT hard!?! Life is holding on to the important and necessary aspects with the right amount of grasp – not too tight and not too loose. Tricky uh?

I also know from my friend who deals with muscle tension that to build a muscle it requires being tense by lifting or exercising – too much tenseness and the muscle is damaged, a muscle that has no tension does not grow or become strong. So many analogies can happen here but I think you get the picture. Creating the right tension in your life so that you are holding on to the important things with the right pressure and you realize this grasp and the tension you exert can either help you grow and hurt you?

This also means we have to be conscious of our grasp and not take it for granted because sometimes we thinking we’re holding on but we have lost our grasp and the thing that was important becomes lost and we often can’t explain the hurt or loss. Because tension is so important we should realize – there are soem things we will need to realize and one is obviously there is a limit to what we can grasp and so we need to choose with intention the things we give our time, energy and heart to. although this tension aspect seems really hard - the trick is to practice.

Jesus didn't start his ministry until 30 years of age and I have often thought that he knew he had to be prepared, had to know his Father's word and be good at grasping his mission and that takes practice. Practice in what and how we grasp and keeping the grasp firm will certainly take training. I fear we dislike practice/training because we want ease and I am all for ease but it seems I only learn when things are hard.

And sometimes we are The Thing that is lost because someone else’s grasp has either become too tight and has let go and we are the person hurt, damaged, or betrayed. I am still reading Marianne Williamson’s book, The Gift of Change (It is getter more and more profound despite it’s wordiness) and something she said in the book also fits well with this concept of TENSION and that is we often don’t have control over the circumstances in our lives, such as cancer, death, job loss, or betrayed relationship but God has given us control over how we respond and in fact for me God’s perspective is one of those tensions, one of the grasps in my life that is conscientious and that I need to have in order to gage the other tensions necessary in my existence. I would love to say I always have the right tension in my grasp on God but I often get caught up with some other tensions and usually they are ones that are seemingly important but ones that are immediate wants?