Rethinking Work-Life Balance: Where is the place of work in life?
2020 has been flying fast. Counting this month, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve spent more time working from home (~4 months) than in the office (3 months) this year. Although I’m comfortable with this new setup, I feel a whole lot busier than before working from home. In terms of work, I observe the increase in the number of meetings and discussions with my team to ensure that we’re still on track to fulfil the deadlines of our projects and proposals. My ministry is at least, if not more, as busy as work; I’m leading my discipleship and book reading groups every week, attending and teaching in the Youth English Service via Zoom, and coordinating the Discipleship Month in my church. There are also personal reading and writing projects for WarungSaTeKaMu and my blog.
When I shared these various activities that I’m doing with my discipleship group, a member commented, “Chill Jeff, sounds like you’re pushing yourself too hard.”
The comment made me worry. Have I fallen again to the dark side of ministry like I did last September? But after thoroughly evaluating my condition, I concluded that I’m doing fine. My daily Bible reflection and prayer are going as strong as usual. Emotionally I’m a bit exhausted from some conflicts I had at work and ministry, but God in His grace always resolved those conflicts peacefully and gave me the strength to endure with love and humility. Physically I do feel weary from time to time, but I always manage to get at least 6 hours of sleep every night and to exercise. And, most importantly, I’m enjoying the presence of Jesus in doing all this.
This evaluation led me to rethink a concept that is echoed loudly in the present age: work-life balance. In brief, this concept argues for a balance between the busyness of work with life outside of career so that we can enjoy life the way we should. How interesting, especially in my context in Singapore that is infamous for its hecticness! Nevertheless, I noticed an oddity in its basic premise. Do you see it too?
A closer look at “balance”
This anomaly was observed after I took a closer look at the word “balance”. What do you usually associate it to? Off the top of my head: bright and dark, hot and cold, abundant and rare. Can you notice the pattern? We generally use “balance” to illustrate opposites that neutralise each other. And what is being balanced – or illustrated as opposing each other – in this context? “Work” and “life”.
By the paragraph above, I hope you’d ask the same questions as I did: Isn’t work part of life just like how sleep, exercise, rest, relationships with friends and family, and others are? Why does work need to be singled out from and pitted against life? Do we not live while we work and vice versa, as if one is “good” that we ought to love it and the other is “bad” that we must despise it?
As soon as I noticed this oddity, I remembered what the Bible says on the subject, namely from 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:23–24. These verses offer an alternative perspective on how humans are to view work and life. Borrowing the final words of the late J. I. Packer to the church, the Bible teaches Christians to glorify Christ every way (1 Cor. 10:31), including in career and work (Col. 3:23) with the full awareness that “[y]ou are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:24).
When we compare the concept of work-life balance with how the Bible views work and life, we can see that the former, at its best, is a reminder to the workaholics (read: me) about the importance of rest. On the other hand, at its worst, the concept of work-life views work as a bad thing and needs to be balanced as much as possible with “life”, whatever the form is. This interpretation is definitely not aligned with the Bible as God Himself views work as a good thing, evidenced in His creating the world for six days before resting on the seventh day (Genesis 1).
If Christianity sees work as good, where should work then take place in life? To do that, we turn to another concept that I borrow from the business world: work-life integration. Take note that the term is the only thing that I borrow; instead, my proposed concept of integration is entirely on the Biblical commandment of “Sabbath”.
The grain-based “integration”
If you haven’t heard about the commandment, it’s actually rather simple: the Israelites as the recipient of the commandment were to keep the designated “Sabbath day” holy by not doing any work and instead reserve it to worship God (Exodus 20:8, Leviticus 23:3, Deuteronomy 5:12–15). The Jews generally have been interpreting it literally: they never do anything they consider “work” on their Sabbath day (there’s an anecdote that elevators in Israel would stop automatically at every floor due to this commandment). In contrast, followers of Jesus would obey this commandment in the faith that He’s the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28, Luke 6:5). What does the title mean?
Let’s take a look at the origin of this title as recounted in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2 verses 23–28. “One Sabbath, [Jesus] was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, His disciples began to pluck heads of grain” (v. 23) and eat them (Matthew 12:1, Luke 6:1). What the disciples did doesn’t violate the Law at all (cf. Deuteronomy 23:24–25), but the Pharisees – an ancient Jewish sect comprising strict adherents of the Law – considered their action as violating the commandment of Sabbath (v. 24). Jesus responded by quoting the story of King David (vv. 25–26) who violated the Law in Leviticus 24:5–9 by eating some holy bread as recounted in 1 Samuel 21:1–6. Notice that Jesus was highlighting to the Pharisees that David and his allies were “in need and hungry” (v. 25). On the basis of this historical event, Jesus then taught that “[t]he Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (v. 28).
This passage teaches me that while we have to distinguish between times to work and times to rest, in practice we also ought to discern if we’re really doing what needs to be done then. In the cases of King David and His disciples, Jesus saw that they were hungry and in need of food, hence He saw no violation against the Law at all. Furthermore, He criticised the Pharisees who interpreted the Law too strictly and ignored those who are in need. In another part in the Bible, Jesus invites all of us who “labour and are heavy laden” to receive His rest (Matthew 11:28), to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him (v. 29), for “[His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light” (v. 30).
Understanding “work-life integration”
Likewise is for the place of work in life. The concept of work-life balance draws a bold line separating the two and demands for an absolute yet abstract balance between them, all the while turning a blind eye on the different needs of different people. In contrast, my proposed concept of work-life integration believes that God created work for His glory and humans’ joy (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:12–13), hence we ought to integrate our works in our lives. At this point, you may question, If “work is a part of life” is an established fact that everyone understands, why does it still need to be integrated? Because my proposed concept also believes in the reality of sin in this world which makes human work – in the words of Tim Keller in his book Every Good Endeavour – “pointless” (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:17–20), “selfish” (read the book of Esther and compare between the selfish works of Haman and selfless works of Esther and Mordecai), “fruitless” (cf. Genesis 3:17–19), and “reveal our idols” (cf. 1 Timothy 5:10). With this reality of good work that God cursed in sin (Genesis 3:17) in mind, I chose the word “integration” as a remembrance that God originally designed work for the good and that by His death on the cross Jesus has restored that original purpose.
Furthermore, this concept invites us to respond to Jesus’s invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 by asking one key question, Is what I’m doing now really glorifies God and makes me enjoy Him the most? Notice the implications of this question, which makes us flexible to work and rest at the best timing:
- We are to give our best for God’s glory and joy through our daily works and activities;
- We can surrender to and rest in God when we’re tired; and
- Once refreshed by God, repeat step 1.
Living out the integration of work in life
Firstly, I set aside a Sabbath “day” in a week, usually on Saturday, where I do completely no work and rely totally on the grace of God to sustain me for the entire day. I wrote “day” as in practice it looks more like a 24-hour period that can be either more or less. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”, hence don’t define too strictly the duration of your Sabbath day. On such a day, I would do only the activities that refresh me (certainly after I wake up and finish my morning Bible reflection), be it exercising, leading discipleship groups, writing, reading, joining the church service if it’s Sunday, and meeting with friends.
On the Sabbath day, try not to think about work or ministry; if necessary, try not to check your phone and divert all the urgent matters to be discussed over phone calls. Take note that this principle doesn’t tell us to not think about work and ministry at all; instead, we ought to bring them in our Bible reflection and prayer and personal worship times on the Sabbath day. My point is that since the focus of the Sabbath day is to rest in God, don’t distract yourself from enjoying God and resting maximally by thinking about work and ministry all the time. Let the trouble for the day be its own trouble, and let the troubles of work and ministry be the troubles of the respective times. Work and ministry know no end, but our capacity to work and minister does. Nevertheless, rest assured, for once God has refreshed us, we’d be more effective in work and ministry on the next day/week.
Secondly, I have “mini Sabbath” as long as I can every night after work/ministry. Aside from the activities above, I would also use such times to read the passages of my annual Bible reading plan. Cooking and having dinner together with my housemates are the highlights of this principle.
Thirdly, when I really don’t have time, I would rearrange the mini Sabbath slots for the week so that some are shortened while others are lengthened. The point is to be as flexible as possible in discerning the sufficient amount for working and resting times so that in all those we really glorify and enjoy God the most. This essay should have been finished in June, but due to the exhaustion from the previous weeks packed with works and ministries, I delayed its completion to July. Eventually, I needed about 4 restful weeks to return to my usual level of zeal and fitness.
In retrospect of those seemingly fruitless 4 weeks, I can say that they count as “productive”, for those 4 weeks allowed me to completely focus on recovering my spiritual, physical, and mental health. Had I not really rested at all, I don’t think I could’ve finished this essay at my desired quality. For me, rest doesn’t always mean me-time, although I do exercise, watch TV series, and read books and comics by myself. What I mean by “rest” is all kinds of activity that refresh and give us the deepest joy in God, in full realisation that by His grace God keeps sustaining us even when we’re not working and that it’s Jesus who defines us, not our work, ministry, or even rest. For me, this translates into playing games with my housemates, cooking for guests who come to my place, and leading those around me one step closer to know and love Jesus through our conversations and discussions. With such a definition of “rest”, we become open to serve others around us, even on our Sabbaths.
These principles may already sound good enough and can be applied immediately in your life, but I’d like to close by directing us to learn from the perfect Role Model: Jesus Himself.
Running our race with endurance and with eyes on Jesus
In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus claims that His invitation is trustworthy because He is “gentle and lowly in heart” and will teach us how to work the soil together with Him. In addition to this claim, since my proposed concept of work-life integration is based on Jesus’s identity as the Lord (of the Sabbath), the reliability of this concept can only (and indeed, ultimately) be tested by accepting His invitation and learning from Him. To do this, there’s no other way by firstly accepting Jesus as the Lord of your life then fervently reading the Bible, especially the books of the Gospel.
You may not know what the books of Gospel contain, so let me share a few examples that show how integral the works and ministries of Jesus were in His life:
- Amidst His busyness, Jesus still made the time very early in the morning to have fellowship with the other Persons in the Trinity (Mark 1:35) so that He could live His day in line with the will of God the Father (vv. 36–39).
- On another Sabbath, Jesus healed the man with a withered right hand in the synagogue (Luke 6:6–11), exemplifying that even on Sabbaths we are to be aware of and fulfil the needs of those around us who are in need.
- He knew for certain when to pass through the Samaritan region so that when He was resting in the town of Sychar, He could meet with a certain Samaritan woman and led the people there to repentance (John 4:1–42).
- With “gentleness and lowliness in heart” (Matthew 11:29), He washed the feet of His disciples on the night before He was crucified, giving us the example to glorify God, rejoice in Him, and love others, even in the most trivial of tasks (John 13:1–20).
Considering the life and example of Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and … endured from sinners such hostility against Himself” (Hebrews 12:2–3), it’s not surprising that the author of the letters to the Hebrews exhorts us to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and … run with endurance the race that is set before us … looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (vv. 1–2). Indeed, to integrate work in life with eyes “looking to Jesus” is what I especially pray for and hope that you will have learned and applied from this reflection of mine.
I pray that the Spirit of Jesus may convince you of this truth and lead you to integrate your work in your life, following the steps of He who has redeemed and shown you the way to eternal life.
The grace of Lord Jesus be with you, soli Deo gloria.
Questions for reflection and application
- How have you been looking at your work or study? Is it something “good” or “bad”, especially in comparison with your ministry?
- What are the ways that you can immediately practice to glorify and enjoy God in your current context, be it at work or study?
- How have you been seeing the Sabbath day? Have you surrendered yourself entirely to depend on God and His grace to sustain you on your Sabbath day?
- What activities can you do outside of work/study and ministry times to “be refreshed in God” and become more effective in work/study and ministry on the next day/week?
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