For a long time, I’ve had the thought, “Balance is over-rated, so often unbalanced people leave a greater mark on the world.” We’re not totally comfortable with that are we? Obsession scares us. Radical. Pouring all that we have into one-thing. Yet, some of my greatest heroes of the faith were unbalanced.

Paul was seriously unbalanced, wasn’t he? Not very healthy, right? We’re more into balanced lives.

But think about this, if someone put you in a field and told you that spread throughout the field were piles of pennies…piles of quarters…piles of hundred dollar bills…and piles of very large flawless diamonds. You have one hour and your goal is to gather as much value into your basket as possible. If you come back with an equal amount of pennies as you do flawless diamonds, you may be balanced, but you will also have missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

You see balance in all things is only an effective life-strategy if we suppose that all things have equal value.

Paul had come to the conclusion that not everything in life had equal value…in fact one thing…one endeavor stood above all others. In Philippians 3 he writes,

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him (be found in him). (vs. 8-9)  I want to know Christ…I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and recieve the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us up to heaven. (vs. 13-14)

Paul thought that Jesus was the flawless diamond and he could not even imagine wasting his time with pennies.  So how much of our lives are spent picking up, cleaning off, counting and collecting pennies?