The Myth of Work-Life BalanceIhe Atụ

Rather than striving for “work-life balance”, how can we achieve whole-life excellence, doing everything we’ve committed ourselves to for the glory of God? That’s the question we will seek to answer over the next three days.

The first step in the pursuit of whole-life excellence has to be defining standards of excellence for everything we’ve committed to in our lives. And setting those standards must begin with the Lord’s commands.

The Bible has a lot to say about what excellence looks like in our roles as mothers, fathers, spouses, employees, employers, friends, and citizens. Today’s passage is one of many great examples. In it, I am given clear instructions for how I am to love my wife (5:33), love my kids (6:4), and manage my team at work (6:9). If I am traveling too much for work, I may provoke anger and anxiety in my kids, and I obviously won’t be around enough to “bring them up in the...instruction of the Lord.” In this scenario, I would be violating the command of Ephesians 6:4 and I would not be glorifying God through my role as a father. This is just one example of how we can apply Scripture’s commands to our definitions of excellence for each role in our lives.

So, in order to define what whole-life excellence looks like, we must first start with what God’s Word commands of us for each of our roles. But it’s also important to understand what excellence means to those we are called to serve in each sphere of life. At work, if we are to do our jobs with excellence, it is critical that we understand how our bosses define excellence for our roles. Similarly, as a husband I am called to “love [my] wife, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). This requires that I submit myself to my wife’s standards of what it looks like to be an excellent husband.

It is only after we look to God’s Word and those we serve to define standards of excellence for each of our roles, that we would be wise to apply our own standards of excellence to each area of our lives.

Once we have defined what whole-life excellence looks like for us, how do we design a life that enables us to pursue “excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory”? That’s the question we will turn to tomorrow.