Finding the Balance (Friday Devotional)

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

- Matthew 10:16

My 5-month old daughter Katherine reached a milestone last week when, for the first time, she was able to sit up on her own. At the time, I hailed her accomplishment on social media as the beginning of a brief golden age in which she would be big enough to bet set down momentarily without supervision, yet not advanced enough to crawl away and get into things.

As it turns out, I jumped the gun a bit. While Katherine can indeed sit by herself for a few minutes when set down just right, she’s a little wobblier than I expected. If she leans a little too far forward or to the right or the left, she topples over helplessly; she still hasn’t mastered the art of regaining her equilibrium when she’s unsteady. If she’s going to sit by herself unsupervised, she’s going to have to learn a little more about balance first.

Balance is important, and not just in the physical sense. In terms of time and energy, much has been made of the work-home balance, ensuring that you’re not neglecting either area of your life. Financially, you want to find the right balance between buying what you need while saving for the future. You want emotional balance too; you don’t want your highs to be too high or your lows to be too low.

Spiritually, Jesus advocates a sort of balance in Matthew 10:16 while giving his disciples instructions about going into the world to proclaim the gospel. He warns them that they are traveling in hostile territory—“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves”—and that they can expect mockery and even physical violence for doing his will. In the face of such threats, Jesus offers this advice: “be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

By calling us to wisdom, Jesus is calling for a kind of shrewdness and prudence in the face of danger. Don’t go seeking out unnecessary conflicts, don’t leap headfirst into controversies, don’t get so caught up in the fervor of the mission that you abandon good sense.

But by calling us to innocence, Jesus wants to ensure that caution doesn’t give way to cynicism, that we don’t become so world-weary that we lose sight of the mission he has given us: to proclaim good news to people used to bad news. In the face of derision and even danger, we are called to remain steadfast to the truth of the gospel.

In the face of fear, believers must be mindful even as we are missional. As Christ commanded, we must balance sense and innocence, pragmatism and passion. And ultimately, we must know where to turn to find that balance: not in our gut, but in our God.