Earlier this week, I handed in my final project for my Masters Degree. Typical as a student, I very much found myself burning the midnight oil to get it complete. And now inevitably I find myself in a state of reflection as I think of everything that I went through since the academic year had started to now. What would I say was the biggest challenge of all? Balance.

More accurately, it really demonstrated to me that balance was something I have always struggled with. Ever since the day I gave my life to Christ. I sensed the calling of God very soon in my Christian walk, and having gained a true knowledge of purpose for the first time in my life, I became driven to do so much. Which definitely led me to overcommitting, on many occasions.

However, I was always able – to some degree – manage it (with some exceptions). Until now. The Masters really hit different. It was an incredibly packed course which basically meant you were behind from day one, and it only got increasingly busier as it progressed. I had other things I was committed to as well, and every single one of those things suffered. I was also enrolled at my church’s Bible College (one evening per week), working on my mixtape, had client work, working at a pub and of course being a writer for AStepFWD. Starting with deferring my Bible College enrolment and ending with taking a temporary step back from AStepFWD, all of them ended up being dropped due to the intensity of the course. It is worth noting, door-to-door my campus is a two hour journey from where I live.

But what really highlighted the struggle I was in was when it became clear that the relationship between myself and God really started to become distant. Significantly. Between the end of October to the end of March, I hadn’t attended a single service – and upon becoming conscious of that, I also realised I couldn’t remember the last time I prayed, opened God’s Word, or spent any time with him at all. That combined with my physical health taking a nosedive – is what lead me to resigning my job at the pub and restructuring my working schedule, because something had to change.

Let me tell you, the moment I made that decision, immediately I found a new strength that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. Life was still busy, but it actually felt possible. I made room only for three things in my life: the Masters, church and rest. If something else comes up, it had to take the place of one of those three, dropping rest was not an option, and one of the other two only if it was for a very short term basis. Through staying steadfast in that commitment, the grace of God over my life became clear. And I sit here writing this, closer to Him than I’ve ever been.

I know I’m not the only who has experienced what I’m writing about. So with that in mind, I want to encourage you that it is possible to find balance. And while I did, you may not have to drop a large number of commitments in order to find it, that’s just what I had to do. But here are three things I have learned which I hope you would find helpful:

1 – God knows that you are busy

Wherever you are in life right now, there is a good chance that God took you there. So really, it goes without saying that He knows how busy you are. He doesn’t hold it against you that you haven’t been able to spend two hours in prayer or read three chapters of the Bible today. If all you can manage today is 15 minutes time with Him, then commit that time to Him.

When you honour those 15 minutes, what you’ll find is that before you know it, you can do 30 minutes. Then 45. Which also segways into my next point…

2 – a little is better than nothing at all

Maybe, outside of work and/or family commitments, there are side-hustles you’re building, a music project you’re working on or that workout habit you’re trying to pick up. And you just haven’t been able to find time for those things. More often than not, we put them off because we can’t put a substantial amount of time into those things. And it can easily seem pointless.

Don’t compare your desired destination to your today. There is a journey to get there. I find myself remembering when John C Maxwell was giving a teaching on this subject, and his illustration was that if you give a large tree five chops every day, eventually that tree will get cut down. The same applies to our goals, little and often is what gets us to our destination.

3 – be honest with yourself

However, there will be seasons in your life when you can commit to little else – like I have been – this is when you need to be honest. When your primary commitment takes not just a lot of your time, but also your mental focus. First be honest with yourself, and then with those you have commitments to. You will always feel stressed until you do that.

However, this is all coming from someone who is very much in the learning process of this. Now that my Masters is over, the true work begins, with such comes the test to see if I really have learned how to find that balance. Perhaps you have been in similar scenarios, if so, feel free to drop a comment with your own thoughts or advice for people currently in this struggle.