Holiday season is here. One of the things I appreciate most about the Netherlands is its commitment to work-life balance. In the United States, my country of origin, we often struggle to find that balance.
One of the young men from my former church recently graduated with an engineering degree and landed his first full-time job. He’s earning a good salary, but he’s also working six days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sunday is his only day off. By contrast, many workplaces in the Netherlands wind down around 5:00 p.m., vacation time is generous, and job security is strong. The average workweek here is about 33 hours, compared to 38 hours in the United States. In fact, South Africa, Indonesia, and Nigeria all average more working hours per week than Americans.
Living in the Netherlands is a blessing, and I hope you are enjoying the opportunity to slow down and take some time off this summer. Nicole and I will be taking a home assignment in California from July 28 through August 28.
But this raises an important question: Have the Dutch discovered the secret to a balanced life?
The Netherlands consistently ranks high in measures of life satisfaction. Yet as followers of Christ, we should ask a different question: Is personal satisfaction the same thing as shalom?
The Hebrew word shalom means far more than peace or happiness. It describes everything being as it should be according to God’s design. It is the harmony of life lived under God’s rule—a life in which every part is ordered rightly, leading to true human flourishing through worship and obedience. Shalom is more than work-life balance; it is whole-life balance.
People in the Netherlands often enjoy abundant leisure time. People in the United States often enjoy greater disposable income. Neither of these is inherently good or bad. Yet either one can pull us away from God’s best if it becomes our ultimate pursuit. More is not always better. Less is not always better. Shalom means doing things God’s way and in God’s timing. It is only possible through a relationship with Him.
So, are you experiencing shalom?
From the very beginning, sin has taken God’s good gifts and distorted them. We see this in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve gained knowledge, but it was the knowledge of good and evil without the wisdom or power to resist evil. Satan promised they would become like God, yet he concealed a crucial truth: God can know evil and still choose only good. We cannot.
This reveals a pattern that continues today. We often have opportunities and desires that exceed our ability to manage them wisely apart from God.
We need food to live, yet many of us have experienced the consequences of overindulgence. God created sex as one of His greatest gifts, yet without self-control, countless lives and families have been devastated by misdirected passion. We naturally desire comfort, but comfort itself can become a subtle master. We accumulate possessions only to become slaves to the jobs and debt required to maintain them. We become too busy to help our neighbors, too committed to serve at church, too financially stretched to give generously, and too restless to recognize when we already have enough.
The freedom God offers is both freedom from and freedom for. It is the freedom to enjoy His gifts—to buy things, take vacations, and rest—but also the freedom to say no to comfort when God calls us to sacrifice. Shalom requires both God’s wisdom and God’s power.
As you enjoy this holiday season—and I sincerely hope you do—take some time to reflect on these questions:
- What lie am I believing about what is good for me?
- Do I believe God truly has my best interests at heart and that He alone defines what shalom looks like?
- Am I inviting God into my decisions about vacations, my budget, and my work schedule?
- In what ways have I adopted the world’s definition of happiness or balance instead of the Bible’s?
“Trinity International Church is a safe, welcoming, community of Christ-followers who uphold a high view of Scripture, celebrate unity in diversity and participate fully in the abiding Christian life as described in the Bible. We are united by the principle that in the essentials there should be unity, in all else there should be charity.”
Pastor Dan
