Earning a living vs. living to earn

I have several friends who are in the midst of trying to discern what they should do for a living next. They are all successful, and many have been on the corporate treadmill. Each is capable of running faster on that treadmill, and earning high six or even seven figures. Yet each has chosen to step off.

I believe God is calling, as He always has, men to turn their hearts homeward. That is what these men are doing. They have determined that training up their children isn't something they can farm out to other people. They have realized that there is a difference between earning a living, and living to earn. They have abandoned the value system that assesses people according to how much they earn, and how much they are admired by others. These are all very difficult things for men, especially, to do.

I know plenty more men who are scurrying ever harder on the treadmill. They work 70, 80, 90 hours and more per week. They have fancy cars, palatial homes, expensive private schools and sports camps for their kids. They live to work, and they are good at business because they can avoid the self-deceptions that doom many companies. They see business opportunities where others can't, and so they are well compensated.

These very same men, however, don't seem to evaluate their own lives with the same perceptiveness they apply to business. They tell themselves that they never see their children because they are working to support them, as if the alternative is that their children starve. They tell themselves that their relentless work is for their families, and not the admiration of other men. They pretend that they are good parents, because they have some occasional "quality time" with their alienated youngsters.

I wonder what would happen if they scrutinized their own lives with the same acumen they apply to a struggling company. What if the "profitability" of the home wasn't the size of the bank account, but the spiritual strength of the family? Who among us would be rich then, and who poor? I admire my friends who are changing their lives, because it takes courage to go against the world's standards. And yet the world needs them, and their children, because the world is overfull with the other kind of men, the ones who sacrifice their children on the altar of business success.

Always there is the choice: God or Mammon. Every day, in a thousand ways, we choose one or the other. Which are you choosing? I'd be a liar if I told you I always chose God. Which is why I'm doubly glad I have these friends struggling to find their way, and to do the right thing. They inspire me to be better than I would otherwise be.