Balancing when your life is spinning

Sometimes life throws us off-balance. Everything can be going along fine and then–in the blink of and eye–we are sent spinning off into chaos at a dizzying pace.

My 8-year-old daughter knows a thing or two about spinning and balance because she is ballet-obsessed. She already takes three hours of dance instruction each week, but it doesn’t stop when she leaves the studio. She doesn’t walk around the house–she leaps. If we go to the beach, she balances on her toes in the waves. She choreographs pretend ballets as she cleans her room. I’ve even caught her practicing “arm movements” during homework.

In order to help with spins, her dance teacher taught her a technique called “spotting.” To keep from getting dizzy (and wobbly) during a spin, dancers focus their eyes on a certain spot in the room. They keep their gaze glued to that one spot while their body turns. When they can no longer see it, they whip their heads around rapidly and refocus on the same spot. The have a cute game in class where the teacher puts on some bouncy music and the kids spin (while spotting). After a specified number of turns, they stop and try to balance on one foot. It’s humorous to watch, but as they perfect their spotting technique, their balance gets better.

My daughter can now do those amazing turns all the way across the floor, like a carefully controlled spinning top. I’ve learned to jump out of the way when I see her spinning down the hallway at home.

God gave us a similar technique to help us regain balance in our lives when our world seems to be spinning out of our control. Scripture calls it, “fixing your eyes.” The book of Proverbs says, “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” (Proverbs 4:25-26 NIV).

The book of Hebrews even suggests what we should use as our fixing “spot”: “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1b-2a NIV).

So, if we keep our eyes fixed on Him during the turning and spinning of our lives–we should better be able to keep our balance. We will still fall sometimes, even the best dancers do. But as we keep practicing, we know our balance will improve.