Can There Be Too Much of a Good Thing?

In our travels through the Great North, we noticed trees with multiple burls. A burl is a large, rounded swelling, and the experts’ best explanation is that they may develop because of insects, bacteria, or freeze damage.

We’ve seen the burled logs everywhere—as support poles for front porches and patio coverings and signposts.

Kinda unique and interesting.

Then there was this woodsy home on the shores of Lake Edith with burled posts and railings.

Kinda cancerous-looking.

“Too much of a good thing,” Dan commented when we passed the house on the trail around the lake. “You should blog about that.”

And so we brainstormed as we hiked. I told him about the time, years ago, when I first tried a new recipe that called for curry powder. It was a hit with my family. So, the next time I made the chicken dish, I thought, “If one teaspoon of curry powder was good, two would be even better.”

It wasn’t.

Dan went so far as to suggest (rudely) that even too many Chai lattes wouldn’t be a good thing. What?!

In a letter to the ancient church at Philippi, the apostle Paul wrote these words to the new believers:

“Let your moderation be known unto all men.” – Philippians 4:5

The original Greek for the word ‘moderation’ is epieikes. It means, “restraint on the passions, general soberness of living, being free from all excesses.”

Paul encouraged his fellow Christ followers to be known for their restraint and gentleness and non-excessiveness.

Too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing—whether it’s too many hours poured into a job, too much stuff, or too much curry powder.

So how do we find balance? How do we live a moderated life?

Pastor and author Rick Warren suggests that you think of your life as a wheel with the hub as the center and the spokes representing family, career, finances, goals, friendships, etc:

“We all build our lives around some sort of hub. The question is, what will be your hub? Will it be your family? Will it be your career? Will it be money? Or will it be Jesus?

“Not only does the hub create stability, but it also controls and influences everything else about your life.”

We were designed by our Creator God to need Him above all the temporal things that will be no more when this fragile Earth passes away. We find stability by prioritizing God as the hub of our lives and asking Him to monitor all our activities, our work, and goals.

Author Thomas Iain wrote:

“And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, ‘This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!’ and each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, ‘No. This is what’s important.’”

Living balance-fully in all we pursue—love, family, home, career, ministry, friendships.

Living balance-fully in all we enjoy—the everyday, amazing graces that spark our lives, purple mountains majesty, eyesight, raspberry white chocolate scones, sunny days, the colors and aromas in nature.

Everything—all this goodness—can be wrapped in a heart of gratitude because we belong to our Creator, a God of stability and consistency, a Father who never changes his mind about loving us, about wanting us as his sons and daughters. And that makes the fullest life possible.

This thought from GotQuestions.org:

“The only area in which we don’t need to worry about moderation is God Himself. We are to love God without limits. We can never have too much of God, and we can never love Him too much. And the more we ask Him to fill us and invade our lives with His Holy Spirit, the easier it becomes to live in moderation in all other things.”