"Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."
Sometimes it is better to face it than to deny it; work can become
all-consuming. It happens to the best of us. We have priorities and we
reset our priorities over and over. God first, family second, work
third. And then what happens is that someone who cares for us either
gently (or angrily) points out that "we've done it again" and our
priorities have turned back into, work first...work second...and work
third. I've had it happen to me so many times in my career that I can't
count the conversations and the looks in the mirror. I also see it
happening around me all the time. Right now I have a very good friend
who is all-consumed with work. He
loves the job and company so he is happy and his wife and kids are
happy that he is happy, but everyone knows that this
period of never letting the Blackberry out of his hand or not having
anything to talk about other than work, just can't go on forever. But, yet it goes on and on and before long years have passed. Why is it that
we let our work take over our lives? The same work that we can't wait
to retire from or get a vacation away from, we allow to creep in and
infest every waking moment and thought? It's almost self-punishment,
but I would venture to say that nearly all of us have had this happen to
us, more than once. Last year a young man, who is wise beyond his age,
asked me what to do to keep from having work take over his life. My
advice was that because work is always additive (more to do, more to
take on, etc.) that thinking that one can subtract work and fill the
glass with something else will never succeed. Instead, other things
need to be poured into the life glass that are important enough to
displace work. Like the glass that is already full, drop some pebbles in
to get rid of some of the water.
As believers we have the great
additive to displace our obsession with work. Our minds that are full
and flowing with thoughts about our jobs need to be freed by adding in
other thoughts. God calls this prayer. Read along in 1 Thessalonians:
"Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." Note,
"never stop praying". If you suffer from the all-consuming obsession of
work and you find yourself caught in the priority spiral of work first
and all other second, then begin to replace the obsessive thoughts with
prayer and watch what happens. Start today with the top of your prayer
list being a request to God to have His thoughts and His words replace
the thoughts of work and then say that prayer over and over throughout
the day. God wants us all-consumed with Him first and from there He
will take good care over of us and over our work. There is no better
time that today to let God be the one who rearranges our priorities.
Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (New Living Translation)
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