Compartmented Life or Biblical Reality?
Blog / Produced by The High Calling
Recently a colleague, a scientist with no faith background of any kind, asked me a startling question. “What do Christians mean by revelation?”
I replied that the world and often the Church view reality as separate spheres—sacred spheres with church-like things and secular spheres with marriage, daily work, and life in community. Revelation occurs when these spheres merge to form a single sphere. That's when we learn the most about God.
Our high-tech world seems comfortable living in separate spheres. The Church can dominate the sacred spheres without being accountable to the secular. Those in the secular spheres can carry on without being accountable to anything sacred. Christians are often caught in tension, moving among all these spheres. Many of our lives are compartmentalized until we finally give up and settle into one "compartment" or the other.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer challenged this model in the 1930s. In Ethics, he claimed that a disciple of Jesus sees only one unified life made up of four biblical mandates:
• marriage and family
• Church
• daily work
• government
Each of these divinely inspired tasks shall be through Christ, in Christ, and directed toward Christ.
A simple prayer each morning has helped me anticipate Christ's presence in every part of my life: "Lord, what shape does my obedience to You take today in all four arenas of my life?" Somehow, the different parts of my life don't seem in such conflict with each other when I can see Christ’s Spirit in everything I do.
This unified view of my daily work is setting me free. I have realized that faith in the workplace is not just a matter of finding success or significance in my daily work. When my life is compartmentalized, I ask seemingly conflicting questions like, "Does the workplace exist solely for the purpose of evangelistic witness?" Or I wonder, "Can my work itself be done to the glory of God?" Now I'm asking myself another new question, "How can I discover and do God’s will in all four arenas of life this day?"
Life integrated in a single sphere in Christ is reality.
A phone call last Friday from an old friend and former coworker caused me to reconnect with my work at Texas Instruments. I remember one eventful day when I was the new research manager and he was the manufacturing manager for a Navy electronics system department. That morning I prayed Sam Shoemaker’s morning prayer: “Lord, keep me in the Stream of the Spirit this day.”
After the weekly managers/ meeting, my new acquaintance asked me to step into his office. He said simply that he had real problems because he and his wife had separated that week. As he looked across the desk at me, I knew I should say something.
Finally, I told him if he wanted to put the marriage back together, I knew some spiritual and technical resources that would help.
"I'm not a religious person," he said slowly. But he explained that he had gotten down on his knees and prayed the night before, “God, if you are out there, I sure could use some help."
That couple rebuilt their marriage with competent counseling. A few weeks later, they could ask each other, "What do we mean by 'commitment''?" Eventually, the reunited couple knelt by their bed one night and put their lives and marriage in Christ’s hands.
My daily work with the manufacturing manager continued to be significant. Our group had the largest sales volume and highest profit of any department at Texas Instruments. But I also had permission to take us outside the box where there are no "secular" or "sacred" compartments and share this revelation: Christ is interested in all arenas of our lives.
I replied that the world and often the Church view reality as separate spheres—sacred spheres with church-like things and secular spheres with marriage, daily work, and life in community. Revelation occurs when these spheres merge to form a single sphere. That's when we learn the most about God.
Our high-tech world seems comfortable living in separate spheres. The Church can dominate the sacred spheres without being accountable to the secular. Those in the secular spheres can carry on without being accountable to anything sacred. Christians are often caught in tension, moving among all these spheres. Many of our lives are compartmentalized until we finally give up and settle into one "compartment" or the other.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer challenged this model in the 1930s. In Ethics, he claimed that a disciple of Jesus sees only one unified life made up of four biblical mandates:
• marriage and family
• Church
• daily work
• government
Each of these divinely inspired tasks shall be through Christ, in Christ, and directed toward Christ.
A simple prayer each morning has helped me anticipate Christ's presence in every part of my life: "Lord, what shape does my obedience to You take today in all four arenas of my life?" Somehow, the different parts of my life don't seem in such conflict with each other when I can see Christ’s Spirit in everything I do.
This unified view of my daily work is setting me free. I have realized that faith in the workplace is not just a matter of finding success or significance in my daily work. When my life is compartmentalized, I ask seemingly conflicting questions like, "Does the workplace exist solely for the purpose of evangelistic witness?" Or I wonder, "Can my work itself be done to the glory of God?" Now I'm asking myself another new question, "How can I discover and do God’s will in all four arenas of life this day?"
Life integrated in a single sphere in Christ is reality.
A phone call last Friday from an old friend and former coworker caused me to reconnect with my work at Texas Instruments. I remember one eventful day when I was the new research manager and he was the manufacturing manager for a Navy electronics system department. That morning I prayed Sam Shoemaker’s morning prayer: “Lord, keep me in the Stream of the Spirit this day.”
After the weekly managers/ meeting, my new acquaintance asked me to step into his office. He said simply that he had real problems because he and his wife had separated that week. As he looked across the desk at me, I knew I should say something.
Finally, I told him if he wanted to put the marriage back together, I knew some spiritual and technical resources that would help.
"I'm not a religious person," he said slowly. But he explained that he had gotten down on his knees and prayed the night before, “God, if you are out there, I sure could use some help."
That couple rebuilt their marriage with competent counseling. A few weeks later, they could ask each other, "What do we mean by 'commitment''?" Eventually, the reunited couple knelt by their bed one night and put their lives and marriage in Christ’s hands.
My daily work with the manufacturing manager continued to be significant. Our group had the largest sales volume and highest profit of any department at Texas Instruments. But I also had permission to take us outside the box where there are no "secular" or "sacred" compartments and share this revelation: Christ is interested in all arenas of our lives.
The demands, pressures and stress of work can put a huge strain on relationships with our coworkers. This 4-day plan from Theology of Work Project and Workmatters provides simple steps you can take to be more loving to your coworkers that will transform those relationships and increase both joy and productivity at work.