In the Spring of 2006, a guy from Genesis suggested that I write a book about the basics of the Christian faith and how Christians view the world around us. It seemed like a good enough of an idea, and now, a couple of years later, the elemental life is in print. Here's the book description:

Life, the decisions and challenges we face concerning work, recreation, money, relationships, and the future can become complex and overwhelming. But they don't have to be.

The elemental life uses the four ancient elements of earth, water, fire, and wind to take a fresh look at historic biblical Christianity. In the process, the elemental life offers a different way of looking at the world around you ... a way that provides clarity in the midst of chaos, speaks words of forgiveness when confronted by failure, makes the most of the struggles of life, and gives meaning to the mundane moments of your everyday experience.

It's not easy, but it is elemental. Find a friend and talk, challenge, encourage, and discover together. Get back to the elemental life.

Because the whole thing was written with the goal of getting people to ask questions and explore deeper, I've also developed a website to go with the site where readers can ask questions and I'll dig deeper into the ideas behind the book through the eLife podcast.

Last month when I was talking with my life coach the idea of a balanced life came up. While I blogged on this a while back, I'm thinking now that I've been working with a poor metaphor and talking about balancing things isn't the way to go.

You see, when you live a balanced life, it automatically means that you live a compartmentalized life. For most people, this means that you have work on one side of the scale and family on the other, and you're trying to make sure things equal out. But are things like work, family, community service and the such really supposed to be broken apart? I'd say the answer is no, rather, I'd say that they all blend together.

So, what's the alternative metaphor? I'm thinking, rather than seeing life as a scale to balance, we need to view it as a tapestry to weave. In this tapestry, different things that you're involved in form the different colors. Now, as you move through life, some colors will come and go while other colors will be dominant for a season and then fade during another.

Of course, whenever you're weaving something like a tapestry, you need those main threads that run through the entire piece and hold the whole thing together. It seems to me, that this is where your faith comes into play. While it's not always obvious on the surface, it's the steady foundation that holds all of life together and prevents the tapestry from becoming a frayed mess.