Faithful Is Successful Series: Daniel Roeber reflects on family and career in response to Matthew Cabeen.
Our careers and our families are both goods God has given to us that enrich our lives and can bring Him glory. Both are secondary to our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, without whose abundant and undeserved grace we can literally do nothing (not even exist). Neither career nor family is sufficient to fulfill the full range of our human needs. Without work, we cannot provide the basic needs that make family life possible. Without a proper view of family, our spouses and children can suffer unjustly. In the context of a life properly ordered toward God, work and family operate together and constitute the bulk of our life’s daily activities. They provide a full range of situations wherein we serve God and others and are ourselves served. — Matthew T. Cabeen, Reflections on Family-Career Balance
Reflection
Dr. Cabeen has provided us with an insightful chapter on a subject with which all driven individuals will be faced: the need to balance a scholarly career with family life. Such a balance takes on greater importance when we recognize both the high value Christians place on the family as well as the incredible demands of time and energy that are placed on those pursuing a career in academia. While this issue is not unique to those in academia, it is all too easy for the exigencies of academic life to crowd out all other priorities. [Read more…] about Living out a Family-Career Balance (Scholar’s Compass)