I was given the assignment on “Balance” for this week’s devotional at Victory BGC. At first, I thought it would be a fairly straightforward topic. After all, we often talk about work-life balance, setting boundaries, managing our schedules, and learning when to say no. But as I prepared and reflected on Mark 6:31, I realized that biblical balance goes much deeper than managing our calendars. It has a lot to do with our hearts, our identity, and whether we truly believe that Jesus is Lord of the work we have been called to do.

Mark tells us that the disciples were so busy ministering that “they did not even have a chance to eat.” Jesus looked at them and said, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” What struck me was that the disciples were not busy doing the wrong things. They were doing ministry. They were serving people, responding to needs, and participating in the work of God. Yet Jesus still called them away to rest.

That’s such a powerful reminder because one of the unique dangers of ministry is that we can become unhealthy while doing something very good. Because the work is important, because people genuinely need help, and because the gospel matters, it becomes very easy to justify an unhealthy pace. There is always someone to meet, another message to prepare, another meeting to attend, another person to disciple, or another problem to solve. The needs are real, but our limits are also real.

I have spent most of my adult life working hard, and if I am honest, there was a season when I was not just hardworking, I was driven. I remember taking pride in being the first person in the office and the last person to leave. I wore long hours almost like a badge of honor because I thought that was what commitment and success looked like. From the outside, it may have looked impressive, but my life was actually chaotic.

Because of how driven I was, my family life suffered. I was physically present at times, but not always truly present. My mind was often still at work, thinking about the next problem, the next target, the next meeting, or the next thing that needed to be done. I was accomplishing a lot professionally, but the people closest to me were sometimes getting what was left of me rather than the best of me.

Looking back, that is difficult to admit, but it is important for me to acknowledge. I had convinced myself that all the work was necessary, that I was providing for my family and building a future for them. There was truth in that, but there was also an unhealthy drive in me. Work had become more than work. It had become part of how I measured my worth, significance, and identity. I was productive, but I was not necessarily whole.

I now realize that success in one area of life can never compensate for neglect in another. It is possible to be doing well professionally while things at home are slowly unraveling. It is possible for people outside the family to admire our discipline and work ethic while the people inside our home experience our absence, impatience, distraction, or exhaustion.

That season taught me that the people we say we are working for should not become the people we neglect because of our work.

Now that I am in full-time ministry, the nature of the work has changed, but I am discovering that the temptation can remain the same. I can still measure faithfulness by how much I accomplish. I can still feel that I need to respond to everything, be available to everyone, and keep pushing because there is always something more that can be done. The environment may be different, but the heart can still fall into the same pattern.

There will always be more work, more needs, and more opportunities to serve. The question is not whether there is still work to do, because there always will be. The better question is whether I am being faithful to what God has actually entrusted to me in this season.

Paul David Tripp, in his book Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church, writes about balance as recognizing the different callings God has given us. Ministry is an important calling, but it is not our only calling. I may be a minister, but I am also a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, and most importantly, a disciple of Jesus. These callings are not competitors to ministry, they are part of my stewardship before God.

That means spending time with my wife is not an interruption to ministry. Being present with my children and grandchildren is not something I do only after the “important” work is finished. Resting is not wasted time and caring for my body and soul is not a distraction from serving Jesus. These are also things God has entrusted to me, and they deserve faithfulness as well.

This is where I have had to rethink the idea of balance. Balance does not mean giving equal time to everything because life does not work that way. There will be demanding seasons, emergencies, and moments when ministry or family will require extraordinary sacrifice. Jesus Himself had long and exhausting days. But there is a difference between a season of sacrifice and a lifestyle of neglect. We were never meant to live permanently in emergency mode.

Psalm 127:1–2 has become an important reminder for me: “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” The psalm goes on to speak about rising early, staying up late, and anxiously toiling, while God gives sleep to those He loves. That passage is not against hard work, scripture clearly calls us to diligence and faithfulness. But it reminds us that ultimately, God builds the house. We participate, we steward, we work hard, and we give our best, but the outcome does not ultimately rest on our shoulders.

This is particularly important in ministry because it is easy for those of us serving in church to begin thinking, perhaps without ever saying it aloud, “If I do not take care of this, who will?” We can begin carrying responsibilities God never actually asked us to carry. We start acting as though the church, the ministry, or the people entrusted to us depend primarily on us. But the church has a Savior, and I am not Him… that truth is deeply liberating.

I can sleep because God is still working. I can rest because Jesus is still Lord. I can spend time with my family because God does not stop building His church when I put my phone down. Rest, then, becomes more than recovery. It becomes an act of faith. Every time we stop, we are quietly confessing, “Lord, I am limited, but You are not. I am stopping, but You are still working.”

There is another part of Mark 6:31 that I find beautiful. Jesus did not simply tell His disciples to go somewhere and rest. He said, “Come with me.” Christian rest is not simply the absence of activity, it is the presence of Jesus, and that changes everything.

Sometimes we think balance is primarily about better time management, better schedules, stronger boundaries, or learning to say no. Those things are helpful, but they do not reach the deepest issue. Biblical balance is ultimately about rightly ordered loves. It is about finding our identity in Christ rather than in our productivity, usefulness, or ministry.

Even ministry can become an idol. We can begin to need ministry to feel important. We can need people to need us. We can begin to find our identity in preaching, leading, discipling, or being useful. When ministry carries a weight it was never designed to carry, it begins to consume the other things God has entrusted to us. Tripp’s warning is that even a good calling can become unhealthy when it begins displacing all the other God-given callings in our lives.

I have had to ask myself a difficult question: am I serving Jesus in a way that still allows me to live like Jesus? Am I becoming more loving, more patient, more present, more prayerful, and more joyful? Or am I becoming hurried, distracted, irritated, and exhausted while telling myself that it is all because I am serving the Lord?

Activity is not always the same as faithfulness. Busyness is not always the same as fruitfulness. Exhaustion is not necessarily evidence of devotion. These are uncomfortable truths because ministry activity can look spiritual even when our hearts and lives are slowly becoming disordered.

This is why Jesus’ words in Matthew 11 are so comforting: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Jesus does not invite us to a life without responsibility. There is still a yoke, there is still work, and there is still mission. But He says, “Learn from me.”

Perhaps part of discipleship is not only learning to do the works Jesus did, but also learning to live at the pace Jesus lived. Jesus never appeared controlled by the urgency around Him. He could stop for one person while surrounded by crowds. He withdrew to pray. He ate with friends. He rested. Yet toward the end of His earthly ministry, He could say that He had finished the work the Father had given Him to do.

Jesus did not do everything everyone wanted Him to do. He did everything the Father called Him to do. There is a big difference between the two.

As I reflected on balance, I realized that perhaps my goal should not be to finish all the work because I never will. My goal is to faithfully finish the work the Father gives me while also faithfully stewarding the people, relationships, body, soul, and season of life He has entrusted to me.

The work will always be there, and the needs will always be there, but so is Jesus. Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is not to push harder, but to hear Him say again, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

We need to learn to obey both invitations of Jesus. He tells us to go and make disciples, but He also tells us to come with Him and rest. One sends us into the mission, while the other reminds us who sustains the mission. Both require obedience, and both are part of discipleship.

My 2 cents.