Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human.

by John Mark Comer

My point is that as human beings, we have this slant to look to our work for significance we can only find in God. When we uncouple our work from God, work becomes a sort of god in and of itself. It’s called workaholism. Work can be just as addictive as any narcotic. Even if it’s hard and difficult and frustrating at times, that sense of accomplishment and accumulation, that sense of another foot higher on your own personal tower of Babel — is a buzz a lot of us crave. Technology has made it easier than ever to become a work addict. We don’t have to get in the car or on the subway and go to work anymore; we just have to grab our phone or pop open our laptop and the office comes to us. It’s like slipping a needle into a vein on your arm — you know it’s dangerous, but it feels so good. But workaholism is more than an addiction; it’s a twisted kind of worship, a search for meaning and purpose in what we do. That’s the insidious and self-deceiving thing about work — it can be too much of a good thing. Maybe what you do is good, even great, it’s for human flourishing, it’s vital to the world, but why you’re doing it is all off.