1. Four things you should do if you make a mistake at work:

“I’ve messed up at work plenty of times and have had to pay a price to make things right. I’ve had to make amends with coworkers, call customers, or stay late at night to fix my errors.

No one, however, has had to pay the price quite like Washington, D.C. meteorologist, Tucker Barnes. The WTTG-TV weather man predicted a monster spring storm would hit the capital. Instead, the area just got just a dusting of snow and rain.

Barnes’ punishment was played out on live TV the next day, as he was forced to take a “timeout” in the corner of the studio. “Finally, someone takes responsibility for their actions,” boomed the voiceover. The hilarious stunt was further enhanced by Barnes’ calls from the corner. “I don’t know why you guys have to do this to me,” he said. And, “How long do I have to stay here?”

You might not have to sit in a corner, but the results of your mistakes are often no less publicly humiliating. Loss of position, pay, or prominence are all common results of getting it wrong. Paying a price for mistakes is a long-standing principle in the workplace.”

2. The challenge of work-life balance from Joseph Sunde:

“So let us be wary of over-working, yes, but let us be just as wary of cramping the scope of our service with arbitrary divides and misaligned attitudes. This will require hard work and careful discernment, but it will also demand an economic imagination not limited by the various legalisms, expectations, and entitlements now promoted by law, culture, and the raw forces of individualism.

Let us pursue “balance,” yes, but one born first and foremost by obedience to God and submission to the profound mystery of his call over our lives.”

3. Joe Carter from the Acton Institue shares some thoughts and a video that question whether some slave redemption programs are effective:

4. Over at The Gospel Coalition, Richard Mouw considers whether government is a result of the fall:

“The Kuyperian insistence that the political sphere was a part of the creational design is especially interesting in this regard. Like any Calvinist, Kuyper insisted that under sinful conditions governments have a God-ordained ministry of the sword. In a fallen world, political authority has a remedial function. For one thing, it holds our sinful impulses in check with the threat of punishment. I might be inclined to drive ten miles per hour over the speed limit, but the awareness that I might have to pay a fine if caught by a patrol car keeps me in line.

But government also exercises the ministry of the sword. It doesn’t just threaten punishment—sometimes it actually punishes. The police and military arms of the state are empowered to apprehend criminals and administer justice by the use of force. Thus the apostle’s admonition: “If you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). ”

5. My latest post at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics about bringing back rest and recreation in our theology of work:

“We can rest from our work because we know that God will meet all of our needs, and that a pattern of rest is woven into the fabric of the created order.

Confidence in God’s providence should encourage us to rest and to enjoy our recreation for the glory of God. It is this assurance in God’s goodness that allows us to set boundaries around our work, so that we do it for the glory of God, but we don’t do it restlessly as if everything depends on us.

Our faith in God’s sustenance of our well-being permits us to restfully play to the glory of God, just as we can work to the glory of God.”