Beliefnet.com’s VP of Editorial, Michael Kress, shares a piece of his own spiritual autobiography in a column entitled, An Unorthodox Education</em>. Even if I do not entirely accept the dichotomy he draws between tradition and modernity, or personal choice and Jewish law, his focus on trying to create and maintain balance in his spiritual life is dead on. Balance is what it’s all about.
That is not my pitch for a spiritual life which always hews to the middle ground – far from it. In fact, many people who know me have accused me of believing that anything worth doing is worth doing to excess. Perhaps they are right, but only if they add the words “for a bit” – and then we need to build in correctives to that excess.

Balance is not the same as finding some bland mid-point between boredom and excitement, especially when it comes to spirituality. Balance is appreciating that wherever we stand and whatever we do, there are always alternatives which could be just as valuable and true. Balance is not getting so carried away with whatever we believe that it blinds us to all of the other possibilities out there, even if we choose not to take advantage of them.