Sunday Read: The Myth of Work-Life Balance

Martha invited Jesus into her home and immediately began performing. Dinner needed preparing, the house needed straightening, guests needed serving. Meanwhile, Mary sat at Jesus's feet, doing nothing productive. When Martha complained, she expected validation. Instead, Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better" (Luke 10:41-42). The "one thing" wasn't better balance - it was better priority.

Modern culture obsesses over work-life balance as if life is a teeter-totter that must be perfectly level. We're told to balance career and family, ministry and rest, productivity and leisure. But this framework is fundamentally flawed. Life isn't about equal distribution of time across competing priorities - it's about proper ordering of loves, with God at the center and everything else finding its place around that relationship.

Jesus didn't come to help us balance our lives - he came to reorient them entirely. When he called his first disciples, they didn't negotiate for work-life balance. They "left everything and followed him" (Luke 5:11). This wasn't reckless abandonment - it was radical reorientation around the only thing that ultimately matters. Everything else - fishing, families, futures - found new meaning in relation to following Christ.

The problem with the balance metaphor is that it makes all priorities equally valid, just needing proper time allocation. But Scripture teaches hierarchy. Jesus said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). Not seek with proper balance - seek first, period. When God occupies his rightful place at the center, everything else finds its proper place around him.

Paul understood this ordering: "Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:7-8). This isn't neglecting responsibilities - Paul worked hard, cared for churches, maintained relationships. But everything existed in proper hierarchy, with knowing Christ as the supreme treasure that gave meaning to everything else.

What would change if you stopped trying to balance everything and started prioritizing correctly? How much stress comes from treating all demands as equally important rather than filtering them through what matters eternally? Martha's problem wasn't that she was serving - it was that she was serving at the expense of the one thing necessary. Don't seek balance. Seek first the kingdom, and watch everything else find its proper weight.