The Balance of engagement

Side one: My instincts lead me away from television (I don't really watch much anyway) and many of the things in culture. I don't want to be like everyone else. I don't want my kids to be like everyone else. I want to be like Aquinas or Aristotle or someone Great. I want to make a difference in the world and not merely accept the current medium's of culture today. I want to be literate - that is read the Great books (plus books that are great)

Side two: While Novels are still important, it SEEMS that movies are the biggest push in culture. And who can really influence someone else if we are not engaging in the culture? It seems that one can best shape culture from within it. "In but not of" seems to be a good rule here.

So, what can we look at to know if "we" are in balance? Then, what ever it is we are looking at, how do we know we are interpreting the results correctly?

Here Jesus is a strange answer. Jesus was predictably unpredictable. However, He was always about His Father's will. This clears up the main stuff (torturing babies for fun is wrong, etc.), but it seems plausible that I could help the most by being truly counter-cultural; however, it could be argued that writing novels or movie scripts could have lots of impact too.

Maybe feeling the tension is what keeps us balancing His will and plan for our lives, but no matter how many times you walk the tight rope, you still get butter flies: It is still dangerous, and you can still fall.