How often does your spirituality come up in everyday conversations? Obviously, it doesn’t enter every single human transaction, but how often does it come up at all? Most often, God and spirituality is left at the door to our normal everyday lives. “Checked in” with the coat and the hat when we enter our normal workday. Our private, religious lives are not allowed to invade our daily, public lives. It would just feel too weird and uncomfortable otherwise, right?
I admit, I’ve done this. I’ve left my spirituality in the car while I ran into my work, the store, the house, the… you name it. Sometimes it’s easier that way. It’s easier to keep our spirituality “pocket-sized” and conveniently out of sight and out of mind, except on Sundays when we meet our like-minded, fellow Christians. However, although it’s easier, it’s not necessarily better. It has been said: “The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren’t where they should be, but that they aren’t what they should be where they are.” OUCH!
What does that mean? It means that most of us, me included, find that we’re privately engaged with God, but socially ambivalent to His message outside our church or home. We keep our religious and public lives completely separate. Unfortunately, with our fast paced lives, our spirituality often suffers in its small, closet-sized space.
Striking the Balance
When you consider that the average person spends 1/3, or 97,760 hours, of their lives in the workplace, and a good chunk of the rest of the time is spent sleeping, there is hardly any time to devote to one’s spiritual growth outside of the workplace. The balance is very much tipped toward our secular, rather than spiritual lives. But it doesn’t have to be.
In his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives, Dallas Willard writes, “There is truly no division between sacred and secular except what we have created. And that is why the division of the legitimate roles and functions of human life into the sacred and secular does incalculable damage to our individual lives and the cause of Christ. Holy people must stop going into ‘church work’ as their natural course of action and take up holy orders in farming, industry, law, education, banking, and journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism or to pastoral and missionary work.”
In my own work, I have tried to insert the sacred into the secular. I talk about God to my clients and invite Him into my webinars and seminars. I try to open every meal, whether it be at home, in a restaurant, or at work, with a prayer of thanks to God’s hand in my many blessings. Have I struck the perfect balance? In one word, no. I’m still challenged by the prospect. I still stay silent at times when I could be a voice for God. It’s a daily process, but I can honestly say, when they are balanced and working in tandem, and God is invited to both my work and public life, I make far wiser and beneficial decisions then when I check him at the door.
What do you do in your business? How have you brought your religion or spirituality into the 9-5 hour slot? How do you strike the balance?
Let us help you strike the balance at the upcoming BE BOLD FOR JESUS workshop on October 22nd-24th! Read more about it here.
