How do I find the balance between the faith and the world?

I\'always been orthodox but just about 1 year ago have I stated to (try to) live the faith and try to walk in the narrow path but I find it very hard to find the balance between this world and the faith. It seems like the two dont go together. Im confused.. I feel like if I would really live by Gods Word only I would have to detach myself from this world but since i live in it, i can not do that. How can i truly live a christian life in this world? Or, am I the only one who feels that way? Does anyone else struggle with that? If so, how do you deal with that? Your sister in Christ, Vera

This is a very interesting question. \\"To find the balance\\" - I, too, find this difficult. I\'m very expectant, Vera, what kind of answers you get. Jannis

Thanks Ioannis, me too...

I call it \'the tightrope walk\'. :-) I find the feasts and fasts of the church give a shape to the journey. Life in Christ is about love. Being in the world gives us the opportunities to practice that love. Oh, yes, it is hard! :-)

Well there are three things I can think of, don\'t know if they are of any help. First my priest once told us we are Orthodox 7 days a week, not 1 day for a few hours. Its not an act, its who you are. Second, remember what St. Anthony says, \\"Do not fear your God instead, love Him.\\" He came and became man, He knows its tough and is merciful (but don\'t intentionally go out and do bad things of course). Third St. Seraphim of Sarov teaches us that we are here on earth to acquire a Christian Spirit. His big point, \\"\\"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.\\" Love, its the greatest commandment, just try and live your life lovingly and pray about it.

I think a part of the practical side, the \\"nuts and bolts\\" of it is centered around detaching as you say from this world. Not that you physically leave it or isolate yourself from others, but that you begin to change your priorities a bit. The world is represented by physical and material possesions. Who makes more money, who lives in the nicest house, who drives the fastest car, who has the smartest, most well accomplished children? All these things are used to set a value on our lives, but they are the things of this world that as an Orthodox Christian we begin to detach from. As Orthodox, we see value much dfferently and we strive to build up our spiritual strength through ascetic labors. We turn away from pursuing the things of this world and instead try to divest ourselves of them. We give to the poor, we strive to live with less material possesions instead of more, we eat less, we seek entertainment less (and pray / worship more). Our attention is cast upward into heaven instead of outwark into the world. Anyway, this is the work we are called to. The result of this work is that we are drawn closer to God and communion with Him. It is hard work, like training for and running in a marathon. Some days , we are able to run, others we are only able to crawl along the path. I don\'t think finding balance is the best thing to strive for, maybe better to strive for peace, consolation and stregth in the struggle. As matdonna has said, this is where the feasts come in to help us. Embracing the parish community has helped me as well. The Bible tells us that we cannot serve two masters (God and Mammon - which is money or the pursuits of the world). Trying to balance the two is folly. We conquer the one to attain to the other. Somsoc mentioned being Orthodox 7 days a week. I agree. I don\'t think any of us can be 100% perfect in this journey all the time. But we can strive always to be mindful of what the proper priorities are and work to build lives that reflect our heavenly values rather then earthly / worldly ones. I am not personally very sucessful at this. But I do try. If any balance is found for me it is in knowing that I am working diligently and that the Lord is always pleased with my righteous efforts and forgiving of my shortcomings and failures. AnnaC

the guidelines I follow... -if I sin, I must force myself to be aware of my sin, even in the act of sinning - which makes me sad -never fail to take Holy Communion - so if you sinned, go to confession, and take Holy Communion... take It every week and you will not despair of your fallen nature. -the above assumes that every week you go to church... never fail to go to church - even if you\'re tired, sick, cranky, don\'t want to, whatever - set your alarms (yes, more than one) get up early, get to the service early - and do your best to sing along... even if you fall asleep in the sermon, don\'t worry... just keep going. following this routine, I have found the things I needed to divorce myself from, because they caused me to sin, or I came to realize that they were sins themselves. I also found it helpful to get a fruitful hobby... It\'s not easy to pray constantly - I\'m not a saint, afterall... so I took up learning a musical instrument.... the committment to learning music is similar to the faith... you just have to keep at it - even if you\'re terrible at it - the longer you do it, the better you\'ll get at it. In addition this limits your \\"idle time\\" - I found that idle time was when I was most likely to sin - sitting at the computer or TV can be quite dangerous and life draining... learning something old fashioned builds character. (why do you think kids who do nothing but play computer games are so boring?)

There is no balance between faith in God, and the world. The problem you and I have is knowing how to apply what we know is God\'s desire, REGARDLESS of the situation. And since situations are constantly changing, even though a principle never does, the application of spiritual truth is hard. In prison the inmates will talk of their sentences and how much of it they\'ve done, as doing it \\"flat\\". In other words day for day, with no \\"good time\\" ( time taken off for good behavior). One inmate today was saying that he was a Christian, and living the life was hard but if someone pushed him, he\'d try to \\"...knock him out...\\" That was when I used the analogy of living as a Christian the same way as he did his time, flat, day for day. If each of us truly follow Jesus Christ, we will never be totally free from difficult times. The task before us then is where our focus is applied. King David said two things which have helped me tremendously: \\" Pour out your heart to God, for He is a refuge for us...\\", and \\"...When my heart is overwhelmed, please lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.\\" May our God through His precious gift of His Holy Spirit strengthen you mentally physically, and spiritually!

I have to confess, that I liked the term \\"balance between ...\\" I understood it in the sence of balance between overzealousness and idleness. I could try to pray and to read religious literature in all of my free time. But in trying so, I would fall miserably. On the other hand, spending all of my free time for a hobby would separate me from God. Balance - in the sence of practising moderation. As always I recognise, that there is never a general answer. What for me means to push something to far, can mean for my brother/sister to be idle. Good, if one has a true spirtual father, who can give advice.

As Christians, we need to view the world with our faith, not just our physical eyes. We need to remember that Christ is the source of everything. We can\'t just take him out of the picture and keep going with our lives. Being a christian is not just about living on earth like everyone else then going to heaven. Living a Christian life means people need to see Christ through me and my Christian behaviour, I can show other people Christ and what he\'s all about. In your situation, you want to find the balance between faith and this world. We live in this world through the grace of God. Without God, we can do nothing. This physical life in the body will end one day and everything we accomplish is nothing anymore. To walk in the narrow path is hard, but you need to remember who\'s calling you and for what. If you always think about why you are walking in the narrow path, you will never focus on anything but eternal life. What you are going through is a temptation from the devil. He wants you to widen a gap in between God and this world which isn\'t possible since he is the creator of this world. Unfortunately, because of how much we\'ve strayed in this life, we are fulfilling the devil\'s wish of widening this gap. To solve your problem, you need to always put God as your first priority. When reading the bible, pray first that God gives you understanding of his words so you can fulfill them better. Obey his commandments. The more we treat God as a friend, the more he will be closer to us. We usually like to listen to advice from our friends and talk to them and tell them about our problems. You\'ll find the balance between this world and faith if you really talk to God as a friend and let him help you out in your life. You\'ll realize his importance in everything and you\'ll immeadiately see good changes in your life.

I remember an article in father Stephen Freemans blog. With my word\'s: we should do everything in our daily life with prayer and reziting of scripture, all that, what enjoys us, irritates us, depresses us ... All our daily duties. He reminded his readers, that the priest during his service in the Divine Liturgie in all things he is doing ricites verses from the Bible. So we should do it in our daily live, to be at every moment in the presence of God.

i am really not big on words but i do want to thank everybody for their time and advise. i do have alot of work ahead of me on my way to become a better christian. i really enjoy reading everyones thoughts and oppinions on this subject. i know that there is not really one specific thing that i can do that will make it perfect but every advise helps to get closer to a better life in Christ so please continue to respond. God bless you all with love, vera

i just recently went to visit a monastery and life there was so beautiful and peacefull and everything was in order. we were working out in the field with the nuns and going to the beautiful long services and i dont know how alse to discribe it but it was beautiful.and when it was time for me to go back home it made me really sad and even a little upset because we have to live out here in this world that is ruled by money and greed and you all know how it is out there.. and it made me wonder.. we have monasterys for men and women who give up everything for God and just serve Him for the rest of their lifes apart from this world.. why cant we have the same for families who dont want to live in this world with all its distractions and all that?! i felt kind of depressed ever since i came back from the monastery. i dont know.. maybe im just overwhelmed by the beauty and holyness of that monastery..

I think what makes this problem more difficult is that most of the literature of the church is written by monastics for monastics... most of the stories of saints we hear are about monastics... unfortunately, i think those of us who live in the world have a hard time to understand HOW to live in the world, because all the hot-shots, so to speak, have been, and are, in monasteries. just from patience on the matter.. not that I\'m a good prayer or anything like that... and clergy correct me if I\'m wrong... those of us outside of monasteries have LESS responsibilities - yes of course we follow the same commandments, pray, repent, etc etc. But we have not taken up moastic vows or vows of ordination which are a huge responsibility that we are free from... what are we left with? men are responsible for their wife and children... wives are responsible for the husband and children... young and unmarried are responsible for not screwing up too badly before getting married. of course a monastery is a beautiful place as an outsider visiting there on vacation... but from what I understand, there is a lot of nuts and bolts hard work that goes into monasteries - a lot of grief, frustration, and exhaustive battling of temptations... before I start talking myself in circles too much... my goals are just such that I -try to be a good christian prior to finding a spouse. -try to work in a christian way (as a teacher) I try not to lead my kids astray - be they atheist, buddhist, protestant, whatever - commend them for wholesome things, cast doubt or criticism on unwholesome things. -try to be a goo christian among my friends - like i said I took up music - so my friends are from my music school, mostly... we talk about music, dating, whatever - we don\'t go binge drinking or anything like that - just enjoy playing music, learning music, talking about music, going to concerts, etc. -try to do my daily affairs in a christian way - be courteous and nice to the folks I interact with daily - it doesn\'t matter if they\'re orthodox or not, who cares? I shouldn\'t discriminate being nice to the convenient store guy - afterall he\'s super nice to me, so we exchange little bits of polite conversation occasionally... always polite to the cooks at the restaurant I\'d say the HARDEST thing is when i come home - I can turn on the internet and click on all sorts of temptations... I guess I should pray... but I won\'t lie - I don\'t, until I go to bed... and when I wake up in the morning... or if i find myself facing some temptation or crisis of some sort an as I said before... just keep going to church, it is your anchor in spiritual life... I technically could go twice a week (satuday vespers and sunday liturgy) but I\'m a little ashamed to say I only go sundays, as my \\"balance\\" of faith and the world has been to be a tourist on saturdays and a \\"christian\\" on sundays. but anyways, I\'ll just keep rambling on and on... so i better stop myself just my many many many 2 cents... from an inexperienced, minimally faithful guy..

Yes, yes, even this is the problem.