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Work has a way of infecting your whole life. If you hate your job, or even have a tense day, you may come home feeling as though you want to shake your spouse, yell at the kids, and kick the cat. But if you love your job, you may work late at night and on the weekends, then come home with just enough energy to "veg out" in front of TV. Even your most casual conversation will be filled with talk of work.

Enjoying work is a gift from God, but joy at work does not necessarily equal enjoyment of life. Early in his book, the author tucks in a poem about time. It is a poem of opposites: birth/death, weeping/laughing, keeping/throwing away. The point of the poem is balance. There is a "time" for all of these (3:2). Finding satisfaction outside your work has something to do with that balance.

Use your time away from work to do something totally different. Take a night-school course in literature, or sign up for an aerobics class. Cultivate relationships outside of work. And if you work for a company that "works 'em till they drop," make up for long days by taking blocks of time away to deliberately clear your head of work issues. (See also Deuteronomy 8:10-20; Isaiah 55:1-5).

Good Words to Remember:
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Today's Challenge:
How much of your life is controlled by your work? Evaluate your time for a week.