To sacrifice the greater good for the lesser, and then not to receive the lesser is surprising folly. Every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made. You can’t get second things by putting them first, you can only get second things by putting first things first.
CS Lewis
Out of Kilter. How many times do you find that Life has lost it’s balance? That you are not where you intended or expected to be, nor where you had ever wanted to be. How did you get here, without noticing, without conscious effort?
We find that the things we had a passion for, that we commit to running for, that we have invested ourselves in, and found joy and rest in, have become tiring and difficult. It takes longer to achieve, requires more effort to sustain, provides diminishing returns for ever increasing expenditure. Is it a wonder we feel tired and worn down? Is it surprising that we struggle to continue down the path ahead, the road so often travelled? We find there is no rest, but relentless straining to recreate a long lost momentum. We find we are weary and heavy laden.
We find our needs are great, and they are many. Where once our efforts seemed to refresh and satisfy, they drain and weaken.
We put our second things first. And we are out of kilter.
Were we wrong to start? Is our course less worthy than we thought? Were we mistaken to pursue and give ourselves to competing, if legitimate, interests? Should we pack in and give up? Is the answer to cut our losses and try again?
Perhaps it is rather a question of Gravity and Light.
It is the immense gravitational pull and ferocious solar energy settled at the heart of our System that keep our planets in their place, that sustains their orbits, that produces and feeds all and any life. Were that removed, what inconceivable effort would be required to maintain but a single celestial body in it’s orbital trajectory, with heat and light enough to sustain it’s environment.
Is that not but a reflection of our own experience? We remove the immense gravitational pull and ferocious fire from the centre of our lives, and find that our orbiting occupations and interests, that our pursuits and causes, that our endeavours and outlets become the all consuming effort of our existence. That inordinate attention is required to prevent catastrophic collisions. That our being is no longer concerned with advancing, but with maintaining, no longer with nurturing growth but with limiting damage. We find that we have crawled off the altar as a living sacrifice for the All Consuming Fire, onto the altar of our lives, consumed in a fire as a dying sacrifice.
It is only by placing that which has the intrinsic capacity to be the Centre, the Source, the Anchor, that our lives can come back into alignment. It is only when we release ourselves, our nearest and dearest, our closely held treasures, our fondest dreams and ambitions from the crushing central foundation of our life, that all else can return to its rightful place, to its balanced and sustainable state.
It is only then that we come back into kilter.
You provide the fire, I’ll provide the sacrifice.
You provide the Spirit, and i will open up inside.
Fill me up God. Fill me up.
Love of God, overflow.
Permeate all my soul.
United Pursuit Band
We can be assured that in seeking the lesser Second things over the greater First, we will not fail to miss out on what we desire. It is by giving priority to seeking First things first, that the Second things we so earnestly sought, come with everything else.
He who did not spare His own Son,
but delivered Him over for us all,
how will He not also with Him
freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.
Matt 6:33
Back in Kilter. With Candlesticks and all.
I am glad to see you again, Jean. Why did you not take the candlesticks, too? I told you, everything in this house was yours my brother.
Les Miserables
Pursuit of Permeation 