Find Your Balance And Thrive

“And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.” Luke 10:41 NKJV

It’s good to know that the concept of work-life balance is beginning to be probed and modified. Over the years, it has caused confusion and unrealistic expectations of what our presence on earth should look like.

I believe we have life and then every other aspect such as work, family, fun, and society comes under it. So the question now becomes, “Are you just trying to stay alive (existing) or are you living life (thriving)?” Your answer to this is determined by how you integrate everything that life has to offer.

Every time I read the story of how Martha wanted Mary to join her and Jesus took Mary’s side, I wonder, “If Martha also sat down, then who would do the serving?” Teachers who discuss the topic also make it look like Martha’s serving was unimportant and Mary was the smart one. When I hear that my next question is, “What would Jesus have eaten after teaching for hours?”

The way I see it, Martha didn’t have the wrong priorities. It was simply poor integration. The serving wasn’t more important than listening and vice versa. They both had their levels of importance. But the state of Martha’s mind was the key here, which Jesus Christ emphasized.

Like Martha, we are so worried and troubled about one aspect of life that we forget to give attention to the other important aspects. We glorify one part of life and place every other part on the bench. That’s not focus but poor integration and imbalance.

• We put in so much time at work that we neglect time with family to the point where our children can’t recognise what we sound like.
• We invest so much time with family that it begins to affect our output at work.
• We spend our time and energy as workers in the church and your career dwindles until you become irrelevant to the marketplace.
• You uphold your family and work values so high, that the call of God upon your life in His vineyard doesn’t get answered.
• You believe work is so important that your social life is non-existent, doesn’t matter whether you’re introverted or extroverted. I’m on this table :).

To me, life is a Ministry. What I do in church influences my career and vice versa. My passion for the work I do and my love for God influence a happy and Godly atmosphere for my family and vice versa.

I agree that sometimes pushing past a barrier or achieving a short-term goal will require some radical imbalance where you’re super focused on that affected area of your life for some time. But after that period, get your life back in shape, whatever that means to you.

Balance doesn’t mean acutely dividing your hours in the day across the different aspects of your life like you’d cut a pie, even though this has its place. To balance is to mix. How can one area of your life influence the other areas and how can you experience all these areas in your way without being overly worried and troubled about one? That is the question.