February 2025-Work Rest Integration

‘The concept of work life balance was invented by people who hate the work that they do, so if you love what you do, you don’t need work life balance, you need work life integration.’

That was the advice that James Watt, the ‘Captain & Co-Founder’ of BrewDog, gave in a recent Instagram video. 

It’s an interesting trend that many have perceived in a younger generation of workers. There is a much greater expectation that a job will holistically satisfy. I’ve watched many friends and family float from job to job in search of the fulfillment that they think will accompany the ‘dream employment’. 

Do you identify with that pressure? 

It seems a timely moment to God to recalibrate us by His Word as to what we can expect from our daily labour. The answer is as realistic as it is optimistic. 

We should expect to thistle while we work.

The opening chapters of the Bible convey to us that work, stewarding and cultivating creation, is God’s good idea. So if you find yourself in a job you love then praise God for that and do it well for his glory.

The very good world that God created, and the one that we read about in Genesis 1 & 2, has been spoiled by the fall. Instead of satisfaction, human labour is accompanied by tiredness, pain and frustration. Whilst the creation mandate remains, humanities experience of work has radically changed. Thorns and thistles are part and parcel of life East of Eden. 

We shouldn’t expect work to do what only God can do.

The vast majority of us won’t find ourselves in our ‘dream job’. There are all sorts of reasons why that might not be possible, many of which are simply beyond our control. Many of us have family responsibilities, health situations and financial restraints that dictate where the best hours of our days are spent.  

That’s why it’s so important for us to know that work was never supposed to bear the satisfaction burden. The energy that you had in your 20’s & 30's will one day be spent. The salary that you accrued in your 50’s  & 60’s will one day dry up. No wonder so many in our world hit the midlife crisis in their 40’s. 

Our world is full of stories of people getting to the end of the rat race only to find that there is dust not cheese awaiting them.

Glorify God in whatever you do.

Only Jesus can truly satisfy our deepest longings and desires. He is the one who compels us to come to him and find rest. He is big enough to carry both our failings and expectations. Our Father is sovereignly and wisely watching over our days. The Holy Spirit is reminding us that this earth is not our forever home. It’s why knowing the truth of the gospel is the most liberating and dignifying place for sheep like us to pasture. 

It’s only from that place of resting in Jesus that we can begin to embrace the truth that in everything we do, from the menial chores to the Boardroom deals, we can live to glorify God. 

In the wise words of David Gibson;

“Live the life you have now instead of longing for the life you think you will have but which you actually cannot control at all.” [1]

With our identity rooted firmly in Christ, let’s be those who counter culturally embrace a work rest integration. 

————————————-

 [1] David Gibson, Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End.