Life is generally a tightrope, and tightrope walking is hard!

            What do I mean by that statement? Well, I sense that many times in life, we need to live in the midst of the tension between two opposites. We often need to walk a fine line between what is right and what is wrong, and the middle ground generally seems no wider than a tightrope. Walking a tightrope requires great balance, and balance is generally very hard to maintain. It gets tiring fast.

There always seems to be two sides to every story and every coin; two ends to every spectrum, and two poles to every problem. I have found, over the years that our tendency as humans is to feel most comfortable when leaning toward one or the other, or perhaps even accepting only one while rejecting the other. When we do this, it gives us the feeling of a more solid footing on which to stand, and a position from which we can mount a defense in any argument, yet I’m becoming more and more convinced that being willing to only accept one pole or position as valid doesn’t usually work.

            This approach of trying to simplify a problem’s solution by naming only one perspective as right, and therefore the other as wrong, denies the complexities of life and then we miss out on new possibilities for growth or the chance to learn from one another’s differing perspectives. While the work of holding two positions in tension is harder than validating only one, what seems easier is usually an oversimplification that shortchanges us in the long run. The work of holding onto tension means learning to live with a bit of ambiguity at times, but it also means we have more than one possible solution when situations change and the “right” answer that worked for us in the past no longer works and in fact becomes wrong in the new setting.

            Are you lost yet? Stick with me and try to follow my thinking, because I’m convinced that tensions are essential especially in our faith journeys. Think with me about the tension between a holy God that judges sin and a gracious God that forgives sin. Is only one picture or the other the “right” picture? Is either picture complete? I think we would all say no, and the quote from Ron Sider below helps us to see the value of holding both of these pictures in tension without dropping one or the other.

      If we understand salvation, we will not rest with forgiveness and neglect personal holiness.  We will not be satisfied as isolated saints and overlook Christ’s new redeemed community of disciples.  Nor will we focus exclusively on the church and forget that God even intends to repair the ghastly distortions Satan has introduced into creation and society. The God who chose to die for us will settle for nothing less than total victory over all sin’s devastation.     It is a glorious paradox that the best way to happiness is not to seek it directly.  Someone has rightly said that Christ “died not to make us happy, but to make us holy.” But holy living is not dull and burdensome.  When we make personal happiness and self-fulfillment our goal, we reap the stifling boredom and evil that come from ever growing self-centeredness.  But when we seek holiness rather that happiness, we get happiness too.[1] 

            I think Ron does a good job of showing that both/and thinking rather than either/or thinking is the right approach to the dilemma of understanding God, and I’m convinced it applies in a lot of areas of our lives and in our life together as a faith community. I’m not proposing an “anything goes” kind of thinking, but I am proposing that we may need to be willing to work harder at hearing one another and valuing the various perspectives we bring as worthy of being at the table of discussion and part of the beauty of diversity within the body of Christ.

            Let’s strive to walk in step with the Spirit of Christ as his body, discerning together when to maintain tension rather than letting the tightrope fall slack. While tightrope walking can be tiring, I’d rather walk a tightrope across a chasm than a rope only anchored on one end! May we commit to hold on to both ends of our tensions with all our might so that God can carry us over to the other side.