Standing on the Fulcrum

We’ve seen them at work on playgrounds: the fulcrum. It’s what makes it possible for a seesaw (or teeter-totter) to pivot from one side to the other. If a person were to attempt to stand in the center, on top of the fulcrum, it would require tremendous balance and strength not to tip to one side or the other. This is not a recommended activity, by the way… just imagine it.

Not to sound too much like Forrest Gump, but life is like standing on the fulcrum. If we think of a teeter-totter perched on a fulcrum, we might envision that pivotal point as the present moment. It’s what’s holding up our lives minute by minute throughout the day. To one side is the past and to the other, the future. We might expend a good bit of energy sliding back into the past, reminiscing about experiences that once brought us joy or people who made us feel deeply loved. But if we slip too far back into the past or spend too much time sliding in that direction, the future looms further away from our vision.

Yet there is danger in expending enormous amounts of energy planning ahead for time that is yet to come which stretches into the distance on the other side of the fulcrum. Anticipation and expectation are delightful gifts in our lives but when disconnected from reality can lead to devastating despair. Events unforeseen in the present could topple the sturdiest of our hopes for and dreams of the future. Slipping too far down into the future on the other side of the present can blind us to what is available to us in the moment.

A tricky balancing act indeed. Well do we know that all that we have experienced in the past has shaped who we are and it’s important to honor, remember, learn from, and be guided by it. And we wouldn’t be fully alive if we didn’t hope and plan for experiences we desire to take part in in the future. It does require delicate strength to remain balanced in the present as if standing on the fulcrum. And it may well be that the source of that strength is the acknowledgment that it’s different from control.

In his book How to Be Here, Rob Bell describes “surrendering the outcomes.” He writes, “If you are looking for a particular response [from others] to bring you joy, that response may never come. The joy comes from being fully present in this moment.” Perhaps it’s possible not only to stand on the fulcrum of our lives but also to do a little joyful jig as well!

Concocted by Rev. Rebecca Taylor, Pastor, without a drop of AI