Integrate Faith, Family, Work, and Leisure
Most people compartmentalize their lives. They have a work part and a home part. They have a social part and a leisure part. They also may have a faith part and even a church part. This is an error.
They need to integrate their parts. The result is holistic living.
Living holistically means that all parts of our lives are integrated into a comprehensive whole. There is no work component and home element, no social aspect or leisure piece. And there most certainly is not a faith function and a secular section.
Instead, we must see everything as spiritual; we must embrace holistic living as a lifestyle.
Faith
Let’s start our discussion on holistic living with faith. Our faith should be the cornerstone of who we are and what we do—of all that we do. It’s foundational. Without faith nothing else matters—not really. And certainly not eternally so.
Everything outside of our faith is temporal. Our faith in Jesus transcends time. It’s eternal. Faith matters more than anything else in our lives. That’s why faith must be the foundation of who we are and all that we do.
This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, going to church. Yes, church is an important component for most people who put their faith in Jesus.
Yet attending a service for one hour a week is not an essential element to our faith. In fact, it could be ancillary.
Our relationship with God is much more important than whether we attend church on Sunday.
Yet for too many people who go to church, it’s an event and not a lifestyle. They put in their time, giving God one hour out of 168. Then they spend the rest of their week doing what they want to for themselves with little regard to God—and what he wants.
Yes, they might pray before a few meals, occasionally read their Bible, or sporadically have a faith conversation. But these are incidental to their lives and not integral to them.
Instead, they should pursue holistic living for their Creator, Savior, and Guide.
Family
Everyone has a family. For most is an integral part of their lives. For others it is not. Their family may be divided, scattered, or antagonistic.
Regardless if our family is intact or fragmented, holistic living means that we make God a central part of our family life—regardless of what that may look like.
We encourage each other on our faith journey with Jesus. We pray to God and talk about God.
God created us to be a family: father, mother, and children (Genesis 1:27-28). We must make our Lord an integral part of our family life. He must be central to it and not incidental. This starts with how we raise our children (Deuteronomy 11:19).
Work
We spent a lot of time working. If we’re employed full-time, this is theoretically forty hours a week or about one fourth of a 168-hour week—and one fourth of most of our adult lives.
Our employment could include white collar or blue-collar jobs. It could mean physical labor or academia, along with many other options and variations.
Regardless of what our employment looks like, we must ask ourselves this essential question: Is God an integral part of our work?
The answer should be yes. Yet for too many people the answer is no. At best it is somewhat.
Instead, holistic living means letting our faith—and the results of what we believe—be an integral part of our work.
This doesn’t mean being obnoxious about it, trying to force a faith discussion into everything we say, but it does mean we shouldn’t hide what we believe from our coworkers, our bosses, and even our clientele.
In this way, we let our light shine (Matthew 5:16).
Leisure
When we’re not working or caring for our family (or sleeping), we have time for leisure pursuits. For some people, this is minimal, while for others, it’s much more.
Do we choose what we do in our free time to align with our faith? Or is it tangential or even hostile toward it?
This doesn’t mean we can’t relax or have fun. But holistic living does mean that we should be intentional about what we do in our spare time (consider Colossians 3:23-24).
Does it honor our God? Would our parents or our preacher be surprised at what we’re doing or how we go about it?
Live a Holistic Life
Holistic living means that we do not compartmentalize our lives into disjointed and misaligned activities. Instead, we seek to integrate our faith, family, work, and leisure activities into a comprehensive whole, with our Lord at the center.
In doing so, we put God first in all ways, all the time.
Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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