Polarity is defined as having to do with the poles (e.g. the North Pole and South Pole), is often connected with the direction of a magnetic or electric field and has a derived meaning from these: ‘the state of having two opposite or contradictory tendencies, opinions, or aspects.’
Living at either the North or South Pole is not easy; the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean amid waters that are almost permanently covered with constantly shifting sea ice, whereas the South Pole sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau. Yet in metaphorical terms, it seems we are drawn to live at extremes, rather than in the middle. We hover around the excitement of religious experience or believe only the monotony of mundane routine is available to us; as Eugene Peterson puts it, ‘we flutter like butterflies around the pole of charisma, or congeal soddenly around the pole of routine.’ (‘Reversed Thunder’, P xi) There is the tendency either to flit from church to church seeking spiritual highs… or a lack of faith, trudging along in the same old routines without ever really expecting God to do anything much at all (‘He’s saved us, that’ll have to do for now...’)
Max Weber says that ‘the religious life is placed between the poles of charisma and routine, between spontaneous, excited outpouring of new life in the spirit and the dogged institutionalization of truth in everyday responsibilities.’ (Quoted by Eugene Peterson in ‘Reversed Thunder’, P x-x1) The mature life of faith ‘is lived between the poles, not around either of them’ (ibid., P x1) Just as it’s virtually impossible to live at the North or South Poles, it’s not healthy to think we can live permanently on the highs of the mountain-top experience or in the depths of the valleys. We need to find a healthy balance between constantly seeking new experiences and never expecting God to speak to us; we need to know what Casting Crowns describe as ‘reckless abandon wrapped in common sense.’ (‘Somewhere In The Middle’)
There is more to life than our daily routines, but we cannot escape the repetition and routine that God has put into His creation. There are moments when God steps into those routines decisively and we’re never the same again: those PPI moments (pivotal point incidents) when God speaks and acts in ways that change everything for us, yet the Bible makes it clear that these moments are not happening every single day. The life of faith involves the balance of ‘both…and‘, rather than the extremes of ‘either…or’ in so many ways.