The remainder of life was declared secular. So farms, stores, and schools were secular places. Surgery and manufacturing, accounting and teaching, driving and watching TV — all were labeled secular. And ordinary people doing the routine and humdrum things of shopping, eating, and reading are secular.
But that is so terribly wrong. In God's plan for human existence, it makes no sense. In light of Christ's teaching, work is witness.
I can grant that there is a sense of the sacred and holy in a church assembled for worship that is missing from a crowded, noisy office. But, work is sacred, too. It is holy by virtue of divine presence you bring to it as a person filled with God's Spirit and participating in God's creative work.
Writing letters, hiring people, selling lumber, stocking shelves, firing someone who broke company policy again, answering phones — these and whatever other things you will be expected to do today are not secular. They're not, that is, unless you misunderstand your role in them. You and I are in the world to continue the work of God. Creating. Improving. Empowering. Doing things that we and others will look at and say are "good" or even "very good."
Work isn't an unspiritual curse from which you should desire freedom in order to visit retreats, seminars, and workshops on spiritual life. It is your lab for turning lead to gold, humdrum to holy by the Spirit-presence you take to life.
Your spiritual life won't be on hold as you work today. It will be on display.
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