It was a toilsome burden and the journey seemed to extend further each time it was taken. Although the young men were on holidays, it was expected of them to share the work load of the farm. One of their duties was to fetch the drinking water from the pump on the village green. This village was a throwback to times of old when the source of clear refreshing water for villages all over England was the village pump located in the center of the green.
Early each morning the two young men set out, buckets in hand, convinced that today their chore would surely be easier. Their return journey, however, proved the opposite; every day and every trip to the village pump would be a challenge. It was not an easy task to balance two buckets full of water without spilling a drop. A lesson was quickly learned, however, that it was easier and more enjoyable to carry two buckets full rather than one; it gave rhythm and ease to the walk. Even so, their arms and shoulders always ached, but the healing balm was applied when those who toiled in the fields or in the blacksmith shop dropped by and quenched their thirst offering grateful words of thanks.
Balance Important
We have all heard the voice of appeal, “0 ye that thirst approach the spring where living waters flow.” In that new morn of our lives, the householder has instructed us to go and drink of that living water, but also to share it with others.
The apostle James stresses the point when he said, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save hi m ?” Luke reminds Theophilus in the opening words of Acts that an account had already been written of the perfect balance in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a speaker and a doer of the Word. “The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” The two go hand in hand giving perfect balance.
Saul Unbalanced
It is sad to say at the onset of his walk in life there was not the balance in Paul’s walk. His outlook on life and what God wanted of him were uneven. He carried one bucket full of zeal to do God’s will but it needed the other one filled with Divine guidelines. Saul’s walk was uncomfortable, his legs weary, his shoulders bent over wondering if the road he had chosen was the right one. Then Christ appeared to him in glorious light: “Saul, Saul it is hard for you to kick against the facts.” He responded and from that point onward his life would have balance.
A Lesson Learned
He never forgot this and the importance of it for those who desired to give pleasure to the householder. In all his letters to the ecclesias, he gives emphasis to the balance needed between understanding and practice, between zeal and Divine guidelines.
Galatians 5:13,14 – “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’. Chapter 6:10- “let us do good unto all men, especially unto them of the household of faith.”
So our time and attention must be allocated carefully in all facets of our lives, especially “unto them of the household of faith.”
Balanced Service
We generally find time to visit those we get along with or cross the ecclesial floor to chat with the ones who are approachable and pleasant. What about the ones who sit quietly by or those who always seem to have something to contend about? We do not want to talk with that brother; he is always complaining about the way the meeting is being run. It is possible the cup of water offered in the name of Christ might bridge the gap, bringing sweet fellowship and a moment of thanksgiving in the house of the Almighty.
Then there are the young ones. There was a time when we had the generation gap. Let us hope that if it was ever there in the brotherhood, it is now closed by hands that have reached across and encouraged the young to take the buckets and go with those who have trodden the highway before them.
The boundaries of our lives have no limits. While it is true the brother must go out in the early morn and do the householder’s bidding, he must not do so at the sacrifice of his sister wife and family. Balance will find him at home for a certain time to share his love and guidance with them. They, too, have a thirst for the waters of life and so he must say, “as for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.”
Imbalance Is Hurtful
How many tragedies are buried in the ecclesial registers giving witness to the fact that we cannot with joy and ease walk the way with one bucket in hand. Even if we try, we do not get far.
Solomon in all his wisdom saw this and realized that the Creator had set the balance right even in creation and life itself. For he said, there is a time for every purpose under the sun. “A time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
How wonderful is the bird in flight; his wings evenly balanced by the selection of just the right number of feathers on each wing. Any other design would cause the creature of flight to fall to the earth.
The Creator, then, has taken us and given balance to our lives through His Son. Let us go to the water that Christ can give us so that we shall never thirst again. Let us, in the days which belong to us, allow our faith to be demonstrated by works so that when we meet our Lord it may never be said of us, “I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One