I think I have made my job far too important. It is the first thing I think about and the last. How do I loosen its grip on me?

“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.”

This psalm was sung by pilgrims travelling up to Jerusalem, people who had left fields and workshops unattended for the journey. It names the anxiety underneath overwork: the fear that if we stop, everything falls apart. The psalm does not tell anyone to stop working. It tells them their frantic hours are not what is actually holding their life together.

“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”

Jesus says this after refusing to settle an inheritance dispute, then tells a story about a farmer whose best ever harvest coincides with his death. The warning is aimed at people doing well, not at people failing. Overwork tends to look responsible from the outside, which is exactly what makes it so hard to recognise in yourself.