Consider this a post-humous written episode of the show Myth-Busters. You know, the show that busted such myths as the 5-second rule and that a penny dropped from a skyscraper can kill you. I don’t think they ever took on the ideal of work-life balance, so I am dealing with it here. The bottom line? Work-life balance as an ideal is an unattainable myth.

Look, I get it. It sounds good. I would love to have it in my life and be able to tell you the secret of obtaining it, but I would just be leading you on, teasing you down a road knowing there is a sign that says “Dead End.” Try as you might, you will never attain it because work-life balance is pure fantasy.

This post is directed to demonstrating that single point to you so that at the end I can introduce to you a better way, the way Jesus modeled. But first let’s address why work-life balance is not attainable.

What is work-life balance?

For some people, work-life balance means the freedom and flexibility to work when and where they want so they have they can integrate their work obligations with their private and family life as they see fit. For others, work-life balance means being able to set predictable boundaries around their work obligations so they can plan their private life accordingly or ensure their work obligations don’t compromise their mental or emotional health.

In any case, and in its most general sense, work-life balance is the idea that we should be able to control the demands our work will place on our lives and thereby balance it as we see fit.

Premised on false assumptions

Work-life balance is a nice ideal, but it is only that–an ideal. It it not realistic for a number of reasons, first of which is that it is based false assumptions.

First, it is based on the assumption that life comes at us in nice even waves, that the demands of our work or home life are predictable and consistent. I know that is not true in my work life and never has been. If you have a family and kids, you know that is certainly not true in your family life.

It is the nature of any business for demands to ebb and flow and those ebbs and flows trickle down to those make that business run. Likewise, families have seasons where the demands on spouses and parents are heavy than at other times, even apart from dealing with issues like illness, divorce, and aging parents.

And even if the demands of our work and life could be controlled to the extent they could be balanced, we would have to have an employer who was willing to accommodate our desires. Good luck finding that.

The space-time problem

There is another problem as well, and that is the problem of space and time. What I mean is this: we all share common ground in space and time. That means if I am at home with my wife, I can’t also be at work at the same time.

This means that even if God would so arrange my work and life to be in perfect balance it would inconvenience someone else. Or to use an actual example, when two of the younger attorneys in the law firm practice group I lead were out on maternity leave they could not working their cases at the same time. That meant I had to do more work–their work–so they could have their life away from work.

Work-life balance is a zero sum game. As long as humans share common space and time, work-life balance for one person–even if possible–would disrupt the work-life balance of others around that person.

We are not designed for balance

There is a more fundamental problem with the ideal of work-life balance: we are not made for it. We are not made it for unless the ratio of balance is 6-1. As the Lord said through Moses when laying out the law for Israel, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath . . . in it you shall do no work . . . For in six days the Lord made the heavens and teh earth . . and rested on the seventh day….” Exodus 20:8-11.

Balance would be 3.5 days of work and 3.5 days rest, right? Or maybe it is the highly coveted 4-day workweek, with three days off. But that is not how we are designed, and this “imbalance” is not a result of the Fall of Man. As Moses said, it is rooted in who God is and the fact that we are created in His image. We are made to work 6 days and rest for 1. As I will discuss here later, we are designed for a rhythm, not a balance.

Jesus didn’t model balance

Perhaps most importantly, if balance is the ideal, Jesus didn’t model it, and that is important. During His earthly ministry, Jesus chose to live within the same space-time limitations as the rest of us. If He couldn’t achieve work-life balance, why do we think we can? Here’s a couple examples.

Jesus: a day at the office

There is the time when Jesus spends all night in prayer on a mountain. Then He comes down off the mountain and from those who are following He chooses the twelve disciples. He then begins healing people and casting out demons, and people are pressing in around him because if they touch Him power is coming from Him and healing then. After all this, He launches into the longest sermon recorded in the New Testament–the Sermon on the Mount. See Luke 6:6-48.

This all-nighter followed by a major management meeting, a time of ministry, and then a lengthy sermon is the very opposite of balance, but I suspect it was necessary. A crowd was already following Jesus during the day. The only time He could find to get away and pray was at night when everyone else was asleep. As a result, Jesus basically works for 36-48 hours straight. And I say “works” because this was Jesus’ job, His calling.

No time to eat or rest

Or there is the time the twelve return from the mission trip Jesus had sent them on and they are all so busy ministering they do not even have time to eat. So, Jesus tells them its time they all get in the boat and go away to a secluded place to rest, but the people see where they are going and they run ahead along the shore and get there ahead of Jesus. Jesus steps out onto the shore and sees all the people waiting for Him.

At this point, Jesus could have said, “Sorry folks. The store is closed. We are now off the clock.” Instead, the Bible says Jesus had compassion on them, and He starts teaching them. This is no small crowd, five thousand, just counting men, and the place is desolate. So Jesus has disciples organize all the people and then He begins breaking the bread and the fish and giving to His disciples until all 5,000 of the people have been fed. See Mark 6:30-48. It had to have taken hours.

The day is not over yet though. The disciples clean up, collecting what is left over of the food, and then Jesus command them to go away to Bethsaida while He stays around to send the crowd away. Jesus then goes up to a mountain to pray. Between 3-6 a.m., Jesus sees the disciples out on the Sea of Galilee straining at the oars. Now, I have actually been on Mount Arbel, and from there you can see clearly across the Sea of Galilee, particularly on a clear night with a full moon. Jesus then heads out to them, hops in the boat with them to journey to the other side. Mark 6:48-52. Again, 36-48 hours of uninterrupted work. Work-life balance?

A better way

These examples of long work days with little rest are not unique to Jesus’ ministry.

In short, the Bible says nothing about work-life balance, and Jesus didn’t model it. He did model an alternative to balance, and that model is realistic, attainable, and liberating. I will discuss it in the next post. GS