The Thing About Balloons

We all remember what it was like trying to blow up those first balloons of our young life. We didn’t understand the dynamics of getting the balloon stretched so it will fill easier, or opening it just right so we can project our exhaled breath into that tiny opening, and then holding it all together until we get it just right so we can tie it off…

We were probably trying to blow up balloons long before we learned to tie our own shoes. Go ahead. Find a youngster and ask them to blow up a balloon and see if I’ve not described it correctly!

Balloons on a string wouldn’t float away unless the wind was blowing, or unless you had it filled with lighter than air gas – then you better be sure and have good control!

And, balloons became wonderful weapons in the hands of kids not afraid to get wet as we learned all about “water balloon fights!” Then the science of the right sized balloon, filled with the correct amount of liquid, and flung with a cupped hand so it would last until it hit someone!

Along the science of balloons, we also learned about blowing bubbles! Jars full of soapy water and a wand with a ringed hole at the end to scoop up some magic and then blow it into the air. Kids. Pets. Adults. Everyone seems to enjoy the idea of chasing bubbles and popping them!

The thing about balloons. Or bubbles. They don’t last forever! The walls and tie off points weaken over time. Someone with a vindictive streak brings a needle to a balloon party. All your hard work to inflate them can come crashing down before your very eyes.

If you could only see and understand the deflating dynamics! Pop a balloon filled with air and it’s almost instantly gone! Poof! There goes your hard work. Throw a water balloon and you expect them to burst. But watch a water balloon burst in Slo-Mo and you can still see the shape of the balloon in the water left briefly suspended before gravity pulls it to itself.

Life is like a balloon…

Fragile. But it’s the pressure of the insides that shape the outside. Whether air or liquid, the balloon allows for just a certain amount of pressure before it’s too much and the explosion happens. Eventually, the outer shell ages and the ability to hold the pressure starts to fade. Slowly, the life force leaks or something drastic happens and, again,

Poof it’s all over.

This world has many balloons. Culture. Politics. Financial Markets. Fads. Needs. Wants. Fill your balloon with whatever you choose, and eventually, that balloon will fail.

Over the past few months, dire warnings pop up all over the place about the longest ever running Bull Market on Wall Street. Surely it will come to a spectacular ending. Bears will invade and all your hard-earned potential could deflate faster than you say, “Oh No!” In fact, one person says it will happen so fast your life will be changed before you even know it!

Whether you speak of the Great Depression of the 1920’s, or the Dot.Com implosion of the early 2000’s, or the Housing Bubble that burst in 2008, Robert Kiyosaki described people during these times as:

“Blissfully ignorant people … financially wiped before they knew what happened.”
[Email from Robert Kiyosaki, 9/14/18]

One analyst just a week ago stated that the market can go from “Green to Red and never stop at Yellow” faster than you can realize it’s happened!

The foretelling of a future disaster is nothing to take lightly. From Nostradamus we learn about fearing the future and strive to forestall disaster, or hoard against that day. From the premise of Revelations 6:6, many describe historical times where you could work all day long and not have enough to buy sustenance for a single day. Or, consider 2 Kings 6:24-33 where a sieged city went to lengths to survive and the people were doing horrible things. All in the name of survival.

The pressures we face in the day of failure can almost break a normal person’s will and resolve to always be “human”. What will it do to the person already sitting on the edge of sanity?

You cannot prepare for every disaster. Some things will ride out the storm better than others, and there are some storms most will never know is coming so how can they prepare! So, if you have all your “eggs in one basket” then let that handle break and you may just lose everything before you can blink an eye!

Equally…

This is why, as a Christian, I take a look at the quickness of this life in light of eternity. The writer of the Old Testament book, Job, describes the briefness of our life like this:

For we were born yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days on earth are a shadow. (Job 8:9 NKJV)

Read some of his thought in this chapter to get the entire picture of his dismay.

Throughout scripture, life is described as equal to the grass and flower that blooms, but is quickly withered under the scorching sun, or even the circumstances of life. The prophet Isaiah describes the temporary status of life, but the eternal existence of the Word of God.

The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8 NKJV)

There is a song from my younger days by the Lanny Wolfe Trio… Only One Life.  Perhaps we need to step back from what we are doing, where we think we are going, and consider that we only have this single life. It matters what you do!

It matters so little
How much you may own
The places you’ve been
Or the people that you’ve known
For it all comes to nothing
When placed at His feet
It is nothing to Jesus
Only memories to keep

You may take all the treasures
From far away lands
Take all the riches
You can hold in your hands
And take all the pleasures
That your riches can buy
But what will you have
When it’s your time to die

Chorus: Only one life, so soon it will pass
Only what’s done for Christ will (ever) last
Only one chance to do His will
So give to Jesus all your days
It’s the only life that pays
When you recall you have but one life

The days pass so swiftly
The months come and go
The years melt away
Like new falling snow
Spring turns to summer
And summer to fall
Autumn brings winter
Then death comes to all