The Myth of Work/Life Balance
Work and life are a blender, not a balancing act
Is it hard for you to keep work separate from your family time and hobbies?
Our identity is often connected to our actions. Everyone needs time to rest, have fun, and work. Maybe work/life balance is not as clear-cut as it seems.
Do you ever feel like your job shapes your identity?
No matter what you do at work, at home, or at church, your true identity is found in Christ Jesus.
When Paul, who wrote many books of the Bible, talks about being “united in Christ” in Ephesians 1, he means more than just being adopted as God’s children or joining Jews and Gentiles into one body with Christ as the head.
Paul also affirms that each of us is made whole. If you are reconciled to God, you are fully redeemed as one person. If you are reconciled to God, you are one person, wholly redeemed.
There is no divide. Above all, we are followers of Christ. We are also entrepreneurs, church members, and unique individuals.
Wherever we go, we are ambassadors for Christ, for the organizations we represent, and for the families we lead.
Francis Schaeffer wrote in Art & the Bible:
“What is the place of art in the Christian life? Is art—especially the fine arts—simply a way to bring worldliness in through the back door? What about sculpture or drama, music or painting? Do these have any place in the Christian life? Shouldn't a Christian focus his gaze steadily on "religious things" alone and forget about art and culture?
As evangelical Christians, we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life. The rest of human life we feel is more important.
Despite our constant talk about the lordship of Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a very small area of reality. We have misunderstood the concept of the lordship of Christ over the whole man and the whole of the universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives, and for our culture.
The lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there are no platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body and the soul. God made the body as well as the soul, and redemption is for the whole man.”
Trying to keep up with different identities can be exhausting. Our work is part of our Christian life, not something apart from it.
Photo: Matthew Henry