WORK LIFE BALANCE

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I think I have mentioned a time or two before that I have a history of being a bit of a workaholic. Chalk it up to my Navy days when you didn’t clock in and out every day or fill out a timesheet to get paid for the time you worked. The expectation was that you would work for as long as it took to get the job done, and at times that involved a lot of hours.

The worst stage of my work affliction was when I was in Djibouti, Africa. I say worst not because I had a bad experience there for it was quite the contrary, an ever exciting, challenging, and rewarding tour of duty during the time I was there. It was only bad in regard to the hours I invested in my work.

You see, I was away from home and half a world away from my lovely wife. In essence, there was no one to go home to and really no home at all, just a temporary place to lay my head down and rest between working. And so I immersed myself in work and there was plenty of it. What else would I do?

My hours were from 8AM to around 11:00PM, Monday through Saturday. I would try and get a break on Sundays but often times we would get Distinguished Visitors (affectionately called DVs) on Sundays and if that happened, then it was another day of work. As you can see the days (and nights) were long.

One night, a month or so after I had arrived, my Commanding Officer came by at the end of yet another long day. I remember vividly how he poked his head in my office and simply said, “Master Chief, remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” His point was simple. I was going to be serving in my position for 12 months. That’s a long time to be immersed in that kind of work environment. He was telling me that I needed to pace myself, to strike a balance between life and work so I wouldn’t burn out.

I fear this isn’t just an issue confined to me or the military for that matter. I think it is a life issue, one that we find addressed even in the scriptures which tells me this isn’t a 21st century phenomenon. Look at these words from Solomon:

And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.  Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

What are we proving by our quest for achievement, a quest that drives us to work in such a way that it dominates what we do in life?

Solomon gives us one possible reason: the envy of others.

Maybe that envy comes in the position someone has, a position you covet and so you work harder and harder with the hope that you might be able to elevate yourself to their level. Your work is driven around the next promotion point or the next higher title you would like to make your own.

Or maybe that envy is around possessions. You envy the things you see another enjoying and are determined to one day have the same things for yourself and your family. You status and stature as being born out of work and so you immerse yourself in that work to do whatever it takes to get what you desire.

Note what’s missing in both of these scenarios. It’s focus on the Lord.

You see, we work and work and work, chasing after our own desires so much that we push aside consideration of what the Lord desires for us to have. Perhaps the Lord desires for us to spend less time at work and more time at home to be a spouse or parent to the people He has placed in our lives. Truly, as Solomon asserts, it is better to have one hand with tranquility and peace in life while the other is at work. Life cannot be all about toiling no more than it can be about being lazy (reference the fools who fold their hands, do nothing, and ruin themselves).

Friends, the Lord’s message is clear here through the words of Solomon. We are to strike a work-life balance in what we do. It can’t be all about work. It can’t be all about rest.

Allow Him to lead and guide you in all things and you will rest assured you will strike the right balance for He will lead you to His desires and those desires will always be perfectly true and right.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com