I am borne of a Dad who believes in work 24-7. When I was growing up he would wake us up before dawn……even when no work was being done in the farm. He just wanted us to start doing something as early as five in the morning. I am not a proponent of working on and on and as such my life would be really unpleasant when the clock hit five in the morning. My brother copied him in this and he would make us work in the farm from six in the morning to six in the evening, the only break being a thirty-minute spell of swallowing food (not eating) nicknamed ‘lunch break’. It reached a point where our brother would allot the farm area to be worked on to each one of us, albeit some of us being younger and energetically challenged. At the end of my first day, my hands had developed blisters and my shoulders were stinging with aches. From the second day onwards, my palms developed hard gravel-textured protrusions such that whenever I shook other people’s hands, they would exclaim….oh your hands are so rough! My shoulders and back developed incessant pains. In the evening, we would apply pain balm on our bodies. It seemed like slavery. Absolutely! It was like the case of the Israelites at the hands of the odious Egyptians. My father managed to push some values into our lives…..though via hairsplitting methods. I thank him anyhow.

Then, my pastor came up with a sermon about those who do not work. Based on the scriptures, these should not eat at all. That affirmed my belief that life was about three things: Work, Work and Work. What my pastor didn’t say is that hard work does not mean roving throughout, like the earth which rotates nonstop.

But as time went on, I reached a point in life when my body stopped functioning like a thermometer, measuring the intensity of the fatigue, and instead started working like a thermostat, as a regulatory device that would make sure the body goes off whenever exhausted. I would experience serious thundering pulses on my head. That was when I was in my third year in campus and exams littered my life. I hopped from campus exams to professional exams ad infinitum. The results? Engine-knocks as it were. Serious headaches faced me. I went to the campus clinic and the doctor told me that I had symptoms of a person who had continuously engaged his mind without a rest. I have always labeled doctors as pure guessers, especially those with limited experience and professional qualifications like him. But this time around, I admittedly nodded….. “That’s right; I have been reading without a rest for the last eighteen months (on the lower side)”.

‘All work without play makes Jack a dull boy’ is not just ancient English saying. In deed it has become as practical as never before, as witnessed by inventions such as retreats, fun days, crazy Olympics, holidaying and indoor working that have marked the 21^st century. Mankind has realized that there needs a balance between work and life.

The question of how to spend time wisely is an age-old riddle which can only be solved by applying the scriptures. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 sums up everything……there is time for everything. And Genesis 2:2 reads: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.Are you wondering how you would strike a balance between work and life? Is the seesaw in your life tilting in one direction, threatening to throw you off-balance? Is your life clogged by a nerve-racking job? Or is your boss angry with you for your hands-off attitude to your work? The answers to both these diametric questions are hidden in the many pages of the Holy Book, the Bible. We will present some of them to you here. Stay with us.

– johnstone katuku