Breathing in and breathing out -- seems so simple until you try doing one without the other. In similar fashion, the tide coming in is only a good thing if it goes back out again. How many things in our lives and in our world offer us such lessons in balance? Sunshine and darkness, the cycle of the seasons, waking and sleeping. The rhythms of life that are so easy to take for granted -- we seldom even pause to think about how vital they are to our very existence.

Faithful living thrives on that same kind of rhythm and balance -- breathing in and breathing out, action and reflection, prayer and service. It seems like a fairly simple and obvious concept. And yet, all too often we forget. We get so busy with the everyday details of life, or so caught up with one aspect of faith that excites us, or so overwhelmed by everything that life sometimes throws at us. We stumble and begin to lose our balance.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, we find him striving to maintain his balance and live in harmony with such rhythms, and to help his disciples to experience such living as well. It is not always easy because there always seem to be pressures which threaten to tip the scale one way or another. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath to worship, because that is a central feature of the rhythm of his life. But while there he encounters a man whom Mark describes as being possessed by an “unclean spirit.” The man’s life is broken and out of balance. Jesus intervenes to bring healing and wholeness. After his time in the synagogue, he goes home with Simon and a few of his disciples -- roughly the equivalent of going to a friend’s house for lunch after church. But when he gets there he finds that Peter’s mother-in-law is sick. Her life has fallen out of balance and Jesus takes her by the hand to help her back to her feet. After a day of being pulled back and forth between attempts to worship and spend quiet time with friends on the one hand and ministering to the needs of those around him on the other hand, Jesus then finds himself faced with a throng of people pressing in on him with brokenness in a whole variety of shapes and forms. And again he gives of himself in an effort to meet their needs. The next morning, recognizing that his spiritual batteries have been seriously depleted, he seeks the quiet solitude of “a deserted place” in order to spend some quality time in intimate communion with God. But even there the weight of the world finds him. Simon and the others literally “hunt him down” because there are still more people back in town in need of healing.

It is here that we find the surprise. We might expect Jesus to offer up a heavy sigh and then say, “OK, let’s go see what we can do for them.” But instead he says, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came to do.” (Mark 1:38) He walks away from a very real need, in favor of staying tuned in to the rhythm of the larger picture. Jesus understands that actively engaging the needs of the world also requires quietly engaging the needs of the spirit. Breathing in and breathing out. Finding the rhythm of life. He understands that even something as important as restoring wholeness to those who are broken can become a distraction and a distortion if it is allowed to overshadow other areas of life which also require our attention.

Discovering the rhythm of faithful living will be different for each of us, because each of us have different gifts and different needs. In the same way that some people can get by on five or six hours sleep while others require eight or ten hours, so also the time we each need to spend in activities such as prayer will vary widely. In the same way that some people are gourmet chefs while others excel at painting, so also the specific details of our ministry to others will vary widely. But choosing to follow Jesus down this path towards rhythm and balance does offer us some general guidelines. Quality time with God is not optional. It renews our spirit. It restores our soul. It revitalizes our life. It provides us with both a sense of purpose and the strength to live out that purpose. A life too busy for God is a life too busy. Likewise, doing what we can to meet the needs of those around us is also not optional. When faced with brokenness, we are called to seek wholeness. When faced with death we are called to seek life. What Jesus’ life illustrates is the reality that prayer and action are two sides of the same coin. They are breathing in and breathing out. Faithful living requires both. Time in the world drives us back to God. Time with God drives us back into the world. Rhythm. Harmony. Balance. It is as simple and as complex as that. And with practice, we might even learn to take that rhythm and learn to dance. But in the meantime, we can begin by remembering to breath.