The sickness and the symptoms of workaholism
Article by Ed Young
It is kind of cruel because workaholics are usually very successful and they can give their spouse and their children a lot of stuff. How often has a spouse said, “You are never at home, always working. Can’t you spend some time with me?” The classic, typical motion sick response is, “Women would give their left arm to wear what you have on now, to live in this house, to drive in this car, to be a part of this club, to take the vacations we take. Don’t even go there with me.” And then workaholics tend to give their children all of the gadgets and gismos and toys and stuff. Yet the children want the parent’s time. They want to know that they are more important than the next deal, the next account, the next acquisition. I have worked with junior high and high school students and I have seen them just rebel and really go nuts. More often than not, they are screaming and yelling for attention that the workaholic mom or dad is not giving them. That is exactly what happened in the life of that man within walking distance of this church.You see motion sickness is not just a 90s problem. Go back to the book of I Samuel. God warned a man who suffered with motion sickness time and time again about his problem. God said, “Eli, you continue in this venture, you continue to act this way, your home is going to self-destruct.” And God’s promptings and God’s words fell on deaf ears. Just read the book of I Samuel and you will see what happened to Eli and his rebellious sons.
In Exodus 18, patriarch Moses suffered with wave after wave of work. His Hebrew culture was slowing carrying him out to sea. I can kind of picture Moses leaning over the side of the boat. Do you know why? Moses, like any typical workaholic, thought that he was indispensable. He thought that there was no way anyone else could do what he was doing and he tried to handle all of the Israelite business by himself. He tried to counsel here. He tried to give economic advice over here. He tried to settle a dispute over here, and a marital problem over there. Finally, you won’t believe what happened. Someone woke Moses up. Jethro, not Beaudine, but his father-in-law, stepped in and said, “Moses, come on, you can’t do it all. You are going to end up in the deep weeds. You are going to end up with severe nausea.
Your vocational equilibrium is going to be out of sync and out of whack for the rest of your life. You have got to draw away. Moses, you have got to rub your back against an oak tree.” Can’t you kind of hear him saying that? The sickness and the symptoms of workaholism.What is the cure? What works? What is the cure for this sickness? I will take the same phrase that I gave my friend, Lee Maxie. It is simply rubbing your back against an oak tree.
Because Ed Young Pastor said earlier, God has given us some oak tree type verses in His word that will encourage us and challenge us and help us get our vocational equilibrium in sync and in balance and in concert with His will. And by the way, I call this the RUB principle.
About the Author
Ed Young says, Don’t even go there with me.” And then workaholics tend to give their children all of the gadgets and gismos and toys and stuff. Yet the children want the parent’s time.
