Workaholism

As some of you may know, I’m currently in the process of finishing my Master’s Degree. It’s been a long journey, but I’m finally beginning to see glimmers of light at the end of what seemed to be an endless educational tunnel.
I was recently given an assignment to read the book Practicing Greatness, by Reggie McNeal. I had a hard time getting past some convicting statements he made in the first chapter.

"Spiritual organizations are notorious for blessing workaholism, for instance...Some leaders don’t know why they are unwilling to break their work rhythms, to take time off, even though they know their lives are way out of balance. They don’t like the ‘blues’ they feel when they are withdrawing from adrenaline, so they maintain or generate artificially high stress levels, just to make sure their body is still pumping adrenaline into their system.” (page 19)

Unfortunately this eerily described the way I often function. But I’ve also noticed that this is very similar to the way many people function in ministry or not; in leadership or not. McNeal’s projected results of such “workaholism” are frightening:

“…the hollow leader – a person with no sense of self, a person who works only from the expectations of others. Since such leaders have no inner core, no authenticity, they merely play a role of being a leader.” (page 33)

If you find this describes your work rhythm, I encourage you to make sure to cut out times for serenity. Don’t feel guilty for spending time with your family, enjoying some sort of God-honoring hobby, being unreachable or unavailable to your job from time to time. I’m in no way encouraging laziness or procrastination. But rather a “gut-check” of the healthy, God prescribed work-rest balance of life. That’s all for now.

Work hard, play hard.

-Patrick



McNeal, Reggie. Practicing Greatness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
ISBN: 0-7879-7753-5