This is Part 2 of the of the post, The Alternative to Work-Life Balance.
Here, I continue with an explanation of the alternative to the supposed ideal of work-life balance. That alternative is work-life obedience, and it best described as God-centered, engaged, stewardship.
Work-life obedience fosters full engagement in the present
When we start from a foundation of obedience to God in work and life, engagement becomes natural. We can be fully engaged whether at work on the job or at home with our family. We understand both are sacred and how we act in the moment is subject to obedience to God.
Jesus and Jairus’ daughter
Jesus was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, probably on the shore with His back to the water. Jairus, the synagogue official, made his way through the crowd and fell at Jesus’ feet. Jairus begged Jesus to come and heal his daughter who was near death. Mark 5:21-23.
Jesus consents and follows Jairus toward His home. As Jesus walks, the crowd is not only in front of Him but folds around beside Him and behind Him. People are pushing in on Jesus, probably bumping up against Him, when the woman who had been suffering from a lifelong and probably life-threatening hemorrhage touches Jesus’ clothing. She touches Jesus’ clothing, not Jesus. But Jesus is so engaged in the present He immediately knows someone has touched Him in faith. Mark 5:24-30.
This is the epitome of engagement, but Jesus modeled it again and again. Wherever Jesus was, He was fully there, freed by knowing He was only doing what He saw the Father doing. Therefore, whatever Jesus was doing in the moment merited His full attention.
Paul’s admonition to the Colossians
The Apostle Paul captured the concept of engagement when he told the Colossians, “Whatever you do, do your work wholeheartedly, as for the Lord and not for men . . .” Colossians 3:23-24.
The word translated “wholeheartedly” or “heartily” in many translations is the Greek word “psyche.” “Psyche” refers to fullness of our mind, will, and emotions. Paul is saying whatever work we do we should do fully engaged with our mind, will, and emotions. Work-life obedience commands our full engagement in work and life because we recognize we must answer to Jesus for all we do.
What this means practically is simple. When at work I’m fully engaged and focused on work, not thinking about being with my family or on vacation. And, when at home with my family, I’m not thinking about work but am fully focused on my family.
Work-life obedience is rooted in stewardship
Work-life obedience is rooted in the understanding that we are stewards of all God has given us.
This is the message of the three stewardship parables recorded in the New Testament: the Parable of the Talents, the Parable of Money Usage, and the Parable of the Householder.
The Parable of the Talents shows the master entrusting His possessions to his servants, in the Parable of Money Usage the nobleman entrusts his money to his servants, and in the Parable of the Householder, the master entrusts his household and the people in it to his servants. In each, the master goes away and the servants must ultimately answer for what they did with the people, places, and things their master entrusted to them. This is the concept of stewardship: the idea of whether it is our work, our family, or home and other possessions, it all belongs to God and we must answer to Him for what we do with it.
But stewardship is also subject to the confines of space and time. This means that in order to enjoy the peace of what comes with work-life obedience we must recognize we only have time to do what God has called us to do and not those things He has not called us to do. In other words, we must be able to say “No.”
Jesus modeled this as well. When a man came to Jesus and asked Him to tell his brother to divide their father’s inheritance with him, Jesus declined saying, “Who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” See Luke 12:13-14. Jesus will come to judge in the future, but that is not why He came initially. This was not something the Father had given Jesus to do. Initially Jesus came to save.
Similarly, after feeding the 5,000, the people decided to take Jesus by force and make Him King. See John 6:15. Now, Jesus would no doubt have been a better king than Herod. He could have ruled for a while until His crucifixion and still paid the price for man’s sin, but that is not what the Father had given Him to do during His earthly ministry. So, Jesus, seeing what the people were getting ready to do, said “No” by going away before they could act. John 6:15.
The Goal
Consequently, in the end, when Jesus is praying the night before His crucifixion, He tells the Father that “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave me” (John 17:6) and “I guarded them in and not one of them perished but the son of perdition , so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” John 17:12. Jesus is accounting to the Father for those the Father had given Him, not for those He had not. He had fulfilled his stewardship regarding to the people He had been given.
Jesus also had fulfilled his stewardship with regard to the things Father had given Him to do, which is shown by Jesus’ statement in the same prayer when He says, “I have glorified You on the earth having accomplished the work You have given Me to do.” John 17:4. God was glorified by Jesus completing the work the Father had given Him–not by doing what the Father had not given Him to do.
And that is the goal of work-life obedience–successfully discharging our the stewardship over the people, places, and things God has given us to do. This is what brings glory to God.
And yet, as we see from the life of Jesus, successfully discharging that responsibility, sometimes required 36-48 hour stints of work, was exhausting, and sometimes required skipping meals.
How we can do all that and not get burned out, sacrifice our mental or physical health, is the subject of the next and last post in this series. GS
