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An excerpt from “The Spiritual Art of Business”
The genius of God’s design is that he accomplishes his work in our souls and in the world simultaneously, and he does it through the ordinary circumstances of our lives. Every moment conspires to bring us into deeper intimacy with him and invites us to join him in accomplishing his work in this world.
I’m grateful that he uses incomplete people to move his work toward completion. He asks, seeks, and knocks at the door, wanting to transform us that he might transform the world through us. That he would long to return both us and the world to his divine design reveals a self-emptying love beyond our comprehension. Early in my career, and in the newness of my conversion, my self-talk was characterized by a “when, then” mentality: When I receive more responsibility, then I can make a real impact. And in the spiritual dimension: When I am purified by God, then I can be an instrument of his will. Thankfully I was not always prone to the procrastination this mindset created.
Shortly after I came to a surrendered faith in Christ, I was having lunch with a senior engineering colleague in our company. He was a slender young man with a well-trimmed beard, a brilliant mind, and a quick wit. We’d bonded through building a start-up company together (and through the nine holes of golf we played with a group of coworkers most Tuesday summer evenings). At one point in our lunchtime discussion, we got into the deeper things of life—faith and purpose.
“To me, it’s all about being a good person,” he said. I didn’t agree, but I wasn’t sure I should contradict him. Finally I cautiously said, “Being good is certainly important, but I don’t think it’s the foundation for a life of deeper meaning. What really matters is whether we are going to live our life for God or for ourselves.”
We remained friends during the years we worked together but then lost touch as our careers diverged. About ten years later, this familiar face came rushing up to me at the top of the escalator in an airport. My old friend seemed as delighted to see me as I was to see him.
“I never forgot our lunch discussion those many years ago,” he said.
“I reflected on it for a long time, and I eventually concluded you were right—the core issue is living our lives for God and not ourselves.” He was effusive in telling me about how his life had been transformed by his surrender to Christ.
I was glad I hadn’t held back from sharing my newfound conclusion to him during that lunch as thirty-year-olds. If I’d concluded that I had to wait in order to be qualified to discuss matters of faith, the opportunity would have been permanently deferred. And I would have missed out on the beautiful experience of seeing the ripple effects of one conversation spoken out of my own vulnerability.
God’s way is to use us along the way even as we’re still on the way. Telling our team, “This point in our strategic plan is unclear to me,” can lead to a discussion that clarifies our thinking and deepens our conviction about the direction we should go. Apologizing to an employee for the way I behaved in a meeting can deepen the bonds of trust.
I have tasted the intimacy with God for which we were designed, but it has not been permanent. I have seen the progress he has made in my soul, but so much more remains to be done. While he is liberating us from our bondage to decay, I spend most of my time at the tip of the blade where he is prying my true self from the bondage of the false self, held fast by an adhesive of hideous strength. Perhaps it’s only natural, as one recovering from decades of pursuing the god of achievement, that I am much more aware of what’s left to be done than what’s been done. Thank you, Peter, for showing us that inexpressible and glorious joy comes as we “are receiving” (not after we have received) the goal of our faith (1 Peter 1:8‑9). Joy does not remain outside the door until the house is completely tidy.
Since we disobeyed in the Garden of Eden, we have been propping up the old man (or, of course, woman) within us, who can only live a hollow, unfulfilled life. Yet our faith strips us of our old selves, enabling us to live into and out of our true selves. This new self acts with purified motives. We are more objective. We are more fully present to the people and issues in front of us as we are less distracted by the noise of the world around us.
Arrogance, and all the other manifestations of that insidious pride, colors our judgment without our even knowing that the crayons have been pulled out of the box. As we increasingly understand that our meaning comes from knowing we are loved, we strive less to artificially derive meaning from status, recognition, or praise. God has searched us and he knows us. God wants to reveal our true selves to us. Thomas Merton famously concluded that to become holy is to become ourselves. Surrender doesn’t deprive us of who we are; it leads us into who we truly are.
As we are emptied of our old selves, Christ is free to become himself in us. We think more like him, act more like him, become more like him. Perhaps as we look in a mirror down the path of life, we will see the shrewdness of snakes and the innocence of doves even as we live as sheep among wolves.
The freedom and joy we experience, as our true selves arrive more fully at our desks in the morning, will be contagious and attractive to others. People enjoy being with people who are comfortable in their own skin. As I more fully surrender myself to Jesus, the organization I serve will flourish by the presence of my absence that allows God to be present.
For Reflection
Imagine yourself looking in a mirror and seeing two versions of yourself—your old, shadow self and your new, growing self.
What are the qualities you see in each of these selves? Do the faces look different from each other as you gaze at this reflected image through the eyes of faith?
Where is God currently at work, growing the one and reducing the other as he transforms you more and more into the likeness of his Son?
Taken from “The Spiritual Art of Business: Connecting the Daily with the Divine” by Barry L. Rowan. ©2023 by Rowan Publishing LLC. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com.
Do Good:
- Read “The Spiritual Art of Business: Connecting the Daily with the Divine” (IVP, 2023) by Barry Rowan.
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