Earlier this year an article floated into my electronic inbox from the Ziff-Davis Network. It heralded yet another computer breakthrough from a major corporation: Sidi Yomtov, an Israeli chip designer working for National Semiconductor, developed a way to combine 43 PC chips onto a single silicon wafer — miniaturization that makes big news in the ever-shrinking world of personal computers. The author described the pressure National Semiconductor experienced and, by extension, the stress Mr. Yomtov felt as the lead designer of the new chip:
“Coordinating a team of 90 engineers in four different time zones, [Yomtov] is at work or on the road so much that his three daughters in Tel Aviv erected a life-size cardboard cut-out of him in the family’s living room. ‘I put my entire prestige of two decades at National behind this project,’ says the bleary-eyed Yomtov. ‘I was afraid that if it didn’t work, I might not be able to show my face … ‘
“Yomtov, meanwhile, expects the next version of his chip to be ready in six months … “
As I read that, I wondered if the cardboard cut-out was a family joke or a Band-Aid over a festering wound. How sad, I thought, that a man could be so worried about losing face that he risks losing his family.
And then I felt the Lord challenge me: How many times have I placed my career before my wife, my family, and my spiritual well-being? How many times have I stayed late in the office to write one more e-mail or finish one more task? How many times have I allowed the pursuit of recognition among my peers to overshadow the needs of my family? How often have I gone home only to obsess over unfinished office work, wandering through the weekend distracted and dimensionless, not sharing myself with my family?
I have resolved to take stock regularly of my life: Is my involvement at home three-dimensional or only a two-dimensional cardboard proxy? My family needs me — not a substitute, a Kodak memory, or the mere promise (or threat) of my presence. As I complete that thought, now is a good time to leave the office and enjoy an evening with my wife.
—Rich Tatum, online project supervisor for PreachingToday.com. To comment on this devotional, e-mail Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.
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