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Priorities: Family and Career

Posted by Doug Mon, 16 Dec 2002 03:20:00 GMT

We attend a weekly Bible study that meets in various people’s homes. There’s about five families that come. Tonight was our “Christmas Party”. What that means is that instead of just meeting for the study and prayer time, we had dinner together too. It doesn’t take long before these types of social events segregate into a “men’s room” and “women’s room”. I think the gals were talking at one point about “birthing war stories”. It didn’t take long for the stray dad to hustle on over to the “men’s room.”

One of the topics we talked about was a quote one of my friends Mike Williams recently told me, “It only matters if you care.” We were talking about our jobs. As men, it’s easy to get our sense of personal self-worth from our jobs. Me? I’m a Linux Geek! I work hard at staying up to date on all the GNU/Linux news. I’ve learned all I can about programming and developing on the GNU/Linux platform (really just Unix in general). The problem with that is the choices it forces you to make. How much time are you willing to put into your career? Are you willing to take job changes that might not be best for your family but better for your career?

Making the decision that you care more about your family than your career is a little hard. Our society isn’t really geared that way. The work-place certainly isn’t. I think this year I’m going to make the conscience decision to care more about my family than my career. I’m not certain what decisions that means I’m going to have to make. I’m not certain how that will change me. I know God wants me to be a good Father and Husband. That’s what I’m going to do this year. If you have any input on this, add a note on my FamilyBeforeCareer page. I know there are other Fathers out there who struggle with this. Let me know how you cope.

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Waging War

Posted by Doug Thu, 12 Dec 2002 14:39:00 GMT

I’ve recently subscribed to Barry L. Davis’ Daily Devotions. I think this is the first one I’ve recieved. He discusses this passage from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

We are human, but we don’t wage war with human plans and methods. We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT)

I don’t have a copy of the New Living Translation (from which that quote is taken). I’m a little bit unsure of some of their wording. The connotation it gives me is that we wage war against people who have “proud arguments” and “rebellios ideas” in order to get them to “obey” Christ. Barry rightly points out in his commentary that “No Christ follower that has a grip on reality would deny that we are in a constant spiritual battle with Satan and the demonic realm.” He immediately follows with the point of his devotion: “What is often denied by believers is the incredible power of God to defeat the attacks that come against us.” See what he’s done here? It’s the same thing I’ve always done. His statement seems to imply that God’s power, while available to us, is for defensive purposes while the passage he quotes implies to me that God’s power is for offense. I’m going to discuss WagingWar more. Come add your comments.

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