Longtime reader of Dr. Veith\u2019s blog (and books), first time commenter. I have been greatly blessed by this blog and by much of the discussion that happens in the comments.<\/p>\n
Your post today touched on a subject I\u2019ve thought about suggesting for the blog since you asked for suggestions of topics a while back. I would love to see you do a blog post on a phrase I hear often: \u201cwork-life balance.\u201d I hear this phrase used so often that it seems to be accepted without question, but it seems to be used almost exclusively to defend things like \u201cquiet quitting.\u201d The doctrine of vocation certainly speaks to this topic as we all have multiple callings from God that we seek to \u201cbalance\u201d (i.e., I can sin against my calling as a husband and a father by becoming a workaholic and neglecting my family. But the reverse is also true.) However, what I see being offered as the definition of \u201clife\u201d in work-life balance bears little resemblance to what the Bible pictures as \u201clife.\u201d Loving and serving my neighbors in my various vocations seems barely visible to completely absent in the picture of life that I hear presented when the topic of work-life balance comes up, even from fellow Christians. So a blog post or series of posts on the topic would be a welcome palate cleanser. Perhaps you\u2019d consider a post on the theology of work, a post on the theology of life, and then a post on the theology of work-life balance, a topic to which the doctrine of vocation certainly speaks. Thanks for considering!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIndeed, framing the issue as \u201cwork-life balance\u201d implies that we have our work on one side of the scale and our \u201clife\u201d on the other side of the scale.\u00a0 Our task is to balance these two completely separate weights.\u00a0 The implication is that \u201cwork\u201d is not part of \u201clife.\u201d\n
I know what people have in mind when they talk about \u201cwork-life balance,\u201d namely, letting what we do to earn a living crowd out everything else in our lives.\u00a0 This is a genuine problem.\u00a0 Many of us work so hard and spend such long hours on the job that we neglect, our spouses, our children, and our other responsibilities, not to mention our spiritual lives and our personal sanity.<\/p>\n
Vocation, on the other hand, makes our work a facet of our lives.\u00a0 But every other facet of our lives is also a part of our vocations.<\/p>\n
As PadreJMW says, we have multiple<\/em> vocations, and we have them in the multiple \u201cestates\u201d (as Luther called them) that God ordained for human life.\u00a0 We have our economic vocation, but we also have multiple vocations in the family (marriage, parenthood, etc.), in the state (as citizen, in our civic responsibilities), and in the church (the call of the Gospel, the Christian life, our involvement in the church).\u00a0 Luther also speaks of a \u201cfourth estate,\u201d not journalism but the \u201ccommon order of Christian love,\u201d which comprises the informal activities and relationships that we have, in which God may call us to His work (as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, our interactions with the people we encounter day to day, our friendships, etc.).<\/p>\nThis doesn\u2019t necessarily make \u201cbalance\u201d of the different obligations in our lives any easier.\u00a0 It might make sorting out the competing demands even more daunting, with even more at stake, since all of these \u201cvocations\u201d\u2013a word meaning \u201ccalling\u201d\u2013involves a call from God Himself!\u00a0 When the demands of all of these different vocation conflict, which should take priority?\u00a0 How can I handle being torn in so many directions?<\/p>\n
When this came up in a group of pastors, to whom I was giving a presentation on vocation, one of them gave a helpful answer.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind that the purpose of every vocation\u2013whether in the workplace, the family, the state, or the church\u2013is to love and serve our neighbors.\u00a0 The pastor said, if this is the case, then what should determine the priority when the vocations conflict is the severity of the neighbor\u2019s need.\u00a0 That is, which neighbor needs me the most?<\/p>\n
There are times when your spouse needs you, so much that your work, your civic duties, even your church meetings, should be put on hold.\u00a0 Sometimes you really need to spend time with your child.\u00a0 Sometimes a disaster at work means that your obligation to your customers and colleagues needs to take priority, and your spouse and children need to understand.\u00a0 Sometimes you need to devote time to the needs of your church.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t \u201cbalance\u201d so much as throwing all of your attention\u2013for the moment, at least\u2013where there is the greatest need.<\/p>\n
I think what some of us mean by \u201cwork-life balance\u201d is carving out time just for ourselves\u2013time to read, relax, watch TV, play video games, or whatever we like to do in our leisure time.<\/p>\n
My sense is that this can be legitimate, as long as we aren\u2019t neglecting the neighbors of our various vocations, but I\u2019m not sure why.\u00a0 Can we take a vacation from vocation?<\/p>\n
There is certainly a long Christian tradition of solitude.\u00a0 Jesus Himself would sometimes withdraw \u201cto a desolate place by himself\u201d (Matthew 4:13).\u00a0 But such solitude is usually understood as time for contemplation and prayer.\u00a0 Even the Sabbath\u2013that time of mandated rest from ordinary work\u2013is a time to commune with God through worship and hearing His Word.\u00a0 Thus, we can be bold to think of God as our neighbor, whom we can love and serve when we attend to Him, even when we \u201cby ourselves\u201d (though, of course, when we do, He is loving and serving us; and He is always present with us in every dimension of our lives).\u00a0 We should devote ourselves to this kind of prayer and meditation more than we do, as part of our Christian vocation.<\/p>\n
But, again, what about pure leisure?\u00a0 Not doing anything in particular, or just amusing ourselves?<\/p>\n
I would just add that, in general, it is probably better to enjoy even leisure activities with a \u201cneighbor\u201d of some sort.\u00a0 \u201cIt is not good for man to be alone\u201d (Genesis 2:18).\u00a0 Such activities are usually even more enjoyable when we do them with someone else\u2013a spouse, our children, a friend, an online gamer.\u00a0 Watching TV with my wife is more fun than watching it by myself.\u00a0 Going to a ball game with a friend, going to the fair with my grandkids, going to a concert or a good restaurant with somebody\u2013without a \u201cneighbor\u201d to do this stuff with, I probably wouldn\u2019t even bother, just by myself.<\/p>\n
I like to read.\u00a0 I suppose the author is my neighbor, though he might have been dead for centuries.\u00a0 I am in a kind of relationship when I read, and I am loving and serving the author by playing his thoughts in my mind and trying to understand him.<\/p>\n
Help me out here.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Illustration from Open Clipart, Public Domain<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Striving for “work-life balance” implies that “work” is not part of “life.” Vocation, on the other hand, makes our work a facet of our lives.\u00a0 But every other facet of our lives is also a part of our vocations. Our multiple vocations may seem to pull us in different directions, but since the purpose of them all is to love and serve our neighbors, we can ask, “Which neighbor needs me the most?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":62401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[5603,4031,4934,12448,8919,12445],"class_list":["post-62284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vocation","tag-doctrine-of-vocation","tag-leisure","tag-luthers-doctrine-of-the-estates","tag-multiple-vocations","tag-solitude","tag-work-life-balance"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n