Tug-of-war!!!!!

I freakin love tug-of-wars!!! It reminds me of this tradition that the elementary school I attended does every year. The tradition is all the fifth grade classes come together at the end of the year for a class battle, and one of the events is tug-of-war. I remember the best battle were the ones that would go back and forth...one class would be close to the "pit" and then they'd pull their opponent to the pit. Such a rad game and I bet the teachers were stoked watching the battles.

Tug-of-war is a super fun game, but when "tug-of-wars" take its toll on your faith... not so fun at all. God has created me to be a person of heart. I tend to do nearly all things from the source of my heart. The bad thing about being all heart is that being all mind is like a really distant.....cousin. You know...those cousins who you wonder if they're really related at all?

"Love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love thy neighbor as thy self."

For some reason, heart and mind are the two strongest qualities that people "are." I am a man of heart. I do use my mind and logically try to approach many things, but when it comes down to being in the moment of quick decisions, my heart leads. My wife, Hanna, is a woman of mind. She is a passionate woman and is a big lover, but I believe that is a life or spiritual threatening moment was to happen and she had to make the next step quickly, her mind would lead her.

Jesus' gives this great command and because of his mysterious, trinitarian nature, he lays down something that is so familiar, yet foreign. Most of the people I hang with are minds. I guess I purposely surround myself with minds because I secretly am desperate for a better balance with my love towards God. I'd like to think it's been helping, but who knows.

I just look at this way... if I wanted to be a professional tennis player, I'm not going to go out and hire a karate master. And I also see it this way...we should stray from spiritual tug-of-wars as a church or a believer, and run towards being a balanced church/believer. And if we look to the body of Christ, we can learn and grow a healthy balance as we work daily on loving the Lord our God will all our heart, soul, mind and strength.