Falling Off the Stability Ball

Balance is the key to life (Elephant on ball)

Like many other thirty-something moms, I am ever on the quest for firmer abs. My newest addition to my fitness equipment is an apparatus that has become increasingly popular on all the fitness shows. It is called a “stability ball”.

Much to the chagrin of my children, who wondered what this huge (72-inch in circumference) hot pink ball was doing on my bedroom, the ball is not for kicking or throwing. There are videos with very specific techniques in which one balances on the ball to increase the effectiveness of the exercises.

If you have ever seen this ball being used in info-mercials, let me tell you that it is much harder than it looks! The supple athletes on the show seem to effortless balance, doing the exercises with no strain and a smile on their faces. It is quite another scene in my living room.

Kids in school and toddler in bed, I bring my stability ball downstairs and turn on the video. First I’m supposed to sit on the ball and do sit-ups. This is definitely not what I thought it would be like. The ball keeps rolling from side to side. I wonder if I have filled it properly. Will it burst when I am finally able to sit on it? At long last, I am able to perform the sit-up properly and realize: this is really hard work!

Next the instructor is lying sideways, leaning casually against the ball as she does obliques. The ball gets away from me. The dog, stretch out on the couch, opens her eyes and looks at the ball, then me. She thinks I want to play. “Don’t you know I’m too old for this? I just want to nap,” she tells me with her eyes, then closes them again.

The final move defies logic. She is standing on her head, rear-end in the air, with her feet on the ball. “How bad do I really want this?” I ask myself. I feel the pouch of baby fat in my lower abdomen. “Bad enough to try.” I modify the move into something realistic.

The cool-down is delicious. I think about the stability ball and how it is much like the life I have chosen. We have been living on one income for most of our marriage, and my husband is self-employed. Financial instability is how we are used to living – but I count myself lucky. In the good weeks we save, and when a major appliance breaks on a bad week, we have no need to panic.

Others, who have thought themselves to be secure in a good job, suddenly find themselves unemployed and don’t know what to do. Their stability ball has burst underneath them. We have relied on self-discipline to keep our way of life; they have it suddenly forced upon them. No one’s life is completely secure, but we knew it all along. In the long run, I think our way is less stressful.

All of us need Christ to keep us in balance. As the economy falls around us, affecting more of the people we know, depleting the food pantries in our churches, we reach toward each other more, both giving and receiving. We turn to God more often, both in supplication and in thanksgiving. Let us never forget that we never have to go it alone.

“Why do you glory in your strength,
your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter?
You who trust in your treasures, saying,
‘Who can come against me?’”
Jeremiah 49:4

Where Moths Destroy

We’re headed for a recession, the experts all said in the summer. Now they predict it will get worse, much worse, before things get better. Many have put their trust in Obama, thinking he will take care of their mortgages, car payments, medical care, and college tuition costs. For these poor people (and I mean this in the spiritual sense), they are bound to be sorely disappointed.

I picked up a copy of “Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl” as a Christmas gift for my children. This tale, set during the now-oft-mentioned Great Depression, shows how a family can get through difficult financial times. We missed it in the theatres this July. Amazingly, the one local theatre who ran it only gave it two weeks before removing it. So I am really looking forward to seeing it with my kids.

As I watch my children’s poor little college accounts dwindle in value month by month, I can just imagine how devastating the loss must be to those who have invested many thousands.

There could be a bright light at the end of this tunnel. We Americans have enjoyed physical comfort for so long, yet we crave more. Instead of being thankful for what we have, we complain about what we have not. Could the end of this be a spiritual revival for America – and the rest of the world?

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroy, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Matthew 6:19-21

This resource about an online accounting degree may be of interest to people who feel like finances are one of their strengths.

Illustration: Misery by Fernando Pelez

My Own Personal Rainbow

“I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”
Genesis 9:13

Over the weekend, the History Channel had a special about the end of times. Since the time of Jesus, people have been reading into their own modern times and seeing the end as drawing near. The current financial crisis has made many fearful, and putting our troubles into the hands of big government yet again seems to draw us nearer to that end. On Saturday, the paper read, “Can the G7 Save Us?”

Happily, the History Channel ended with a scripture that my mother-in-law had quoted to me just last week: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”(Mark 13:32)

Then the Sunday readings spoke of God’s grace that will provide, and dealing with times of lean and times of plenty.

Philippians 4: 12 - 14, 19 – 20
12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.
13 I can do all things in him who strengthens me.
14 Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Everyone feels the economic crunch on some level, no matter what their tax bracket. God promises to provide for our basic needs, and to give us the grace to deal with times of difficulty.

But then comes a promise of plenty for those who have faith in end times. Here I think is a scripture to give us hope, rather than fear, if we should live to see the Day of Judgment.

Isaiah 25: 6 - 10
6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, as straw is trodden down in a dung-pit.

This rainbow appeared directly above my house today, making me lean toward dwelling on the promises of a kind and merciful God.