Work-Life Balance
“I need a better work-life balance.”
My response: “You mean work isn’t life?”
For all of human history, work was life. Consider the Law of the Sabbath: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God” (Exodus 20:9-10 ESV).
Whoa! work to time-off ratio of 6:1? What about the 5-day workweek? Working less than 6 days in the Old Testament was considered “sloth.”
While I’m not a Jeff Bezos fan, I love his recent take on work-life balance. He sees it as destroying the fulfillment people get from the value of work. He prefers the term, “work-life harmony.” He said, “Balance tends to imply a strict tradeoff. In fact, if I’m happy at work, I’m better at home—a better husband and better father. And if I’m happy at home, I come into work more energized—a better employee and a better colleague.”
I agree. My work life began when I was 12 years old, and I’ve never not had a job since. I think rightly so, my identity and joy in life was intertwined with my work. And it still is today.
Today, that concept is anathema and work is considered a necessary evil. But according to Scripture, we were created to work and produce because we were created in the image of our working God. How we work is how we worship. Yes, for the Christian, work is worship.
It’s why my kids were required to work jobs through high school. Not because they needed the money (though they needed to earn their own), but because I wanted them to know the value of our God-given work ethic.
It was that Protestant work ethic (work is worship) that put the economy of this country on the map. It’s been the immigrant work ethic that has sustained it since.
But I fear our nation has been taken over by an endorsed culture of laziness. College graduates are now looking for their very first job ever, and insisting that it be “meaningful work” that does not interfere with their “work-life balance.” The 4-day workweek is now on the table. For most of us, we live for our days off, vacation time, and strive for early retirement.
But what if your work is not meaningful? Instead of looking for your job to bring meaning to you, you bring meaning to your job.
Whether you are waiting tables, a machinist in a factory, behind a computer in a cubicle, or in a corner office, you are the one who makes it meaningful. Bring Jesus to work and pour yourself into it. Represent Him well, and do your work in a way that makes Him proud. Then your work will be meaningful.
“Work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord… do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord” (Colossians 1:22-23 HCSB).