Work-Life Balance

          “Former Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan joined in the ongoing public debate on work-life balance this week, telling the world she had regrets over the sacrifices she made for success, and prompting renewed buzz on the topic...I can’t make up for lost time,” she wrote in a Sunday New York Times opinion piece, “Is There Life After Work?” In it, Callan, who resigned as CFO in 2008, describes how work always came first for her, often at the expense of family, friends and her marriage (which eventually ended in divorce)...She explains how work took over her life gradually...“I didn’t start out with the goal of devoting all of myself to my job. It crept in over time,” she writes. “Each year that went by, slight modifications became the new normal. First I spent a half-hour on Sunday organizing my e-mail, to-do list and calendar to make Monday morning easier. Then I was working a few hours on Sunday, then all day. My boundaries slipped away until work was all that was left.”  She also writes, “Sometimes young women tell me they admire what I’ve done. As they see it, I worked hard for 20 years and can now spend the next 20 focused on other things. But that is not balance. I do not wish that for anyone.”” (Beth Greenfield, “Former CFO Erin Callan Regrets Not Having Children, Reignites Work-Life Balance Debate”, shine.yahoo.com, 3-11-13).
          Ms. Callan isn’t the first and won’t be the last person to regret taking better care of their career than their family.  Employment is a necessity for most of us.  Disciples of Jesus are encouraged to do honest work and provide for their families (1 Timothy 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-8,11-12).  Christians ought to be the best employees around.  But we must guard against letting our careers become more important than our marriages and families.  Sacrificing family on the altar of success is much too high a price to pay.

God loves you!
Mike