Blog - Embodying Truth
As a state employee, I once saw a scene that made me cringe. A Christian co-worker had trapped another employee in the corner formed by the hallway wall and a Coke machine. And into that captive audience the believer was pounding home the gospel. In the years since, I've asked myself: “What forces drive some Christians to such insensitivity in witnessing?”
read more...The children's song, “This Little Light of Mine,” urges us to let it shine everywhere. But as a grownup in the workplace, I can easily think of my little light as even smaller. How can such a tiny flicker ever penetrate into the gigantic corporate bureaucracy all around me? Troy, a friend of mine, works for one of those giant corporations. He is one of around 35,000 employees in an international timber products firm. Yet he and a few fellow Christians have found a way to let Christ's light in them shine even there.
read more...We nod our agreement with Jesus' command to love our neighbors as ourselves. But the test comes as we live with those workplace neighbors day after day, week after week, year after year. Does their less-than-Christian behavior erode our respect for them?
read more...In my Dec. 31 blog, I wrote that all Christians need to be “eyes and ears, priests and pray-ers, salt and light” on the job. Jeff Morgan responded by noting how this points up our need for awareness: “I see tasks not people,” he wrote. “But once given pause, I see the missed opportunity to connect. How do I orient myself daily to have such a seeking eye?”
read more...Eugene Peterson's book title assures us that Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Apparently those places include bakeries. A close friend of ours (she prefers to remain anonymous) told us how Christ met her and a co-worker in the bakery department of a grocery store. Here, in her own words, is her story.
read more...The official-looking envelope from the Department of Licensing reminded me of something I no longer look forward to—my birthday. So, more than a month early, I drove to the licensing office. There, in addition to a new license, I'd get a fresh insight into serving Christ in the workplace.
read more...Nearly a month has passed since posting my last blog. The reason: preparing for and spending nearly two weeks in China. I went as one of a group of graduate students from various nations, visiting Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. During that visit, and from reading books on China associated with that course, I learned some encouraging facts about workplace ministry there.
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The raid of Osama Bin Laden’s hideaway—and his death—grabbed and held lenses and microphones for days. To my surprise, the work of the U.S. Navy Seals suggested an analogy relating to the church and workplace ministry.
read more...One question from the forum described in the previous blog asked: "What is appropriate in workplace witnessing?” There is, of course, no bumper-sticker answer to that. God has given us his Holy Spirit as teacher and guide to make us able to navigate all areas of our lives—including our witness at work.But two statements by Jesus—which at first seem to cancel each other out —may help us hear the Spirit of God more clearly as we seek to make our workplace witness "appropriate.”
read more...We’ve all heard the words, "separation of church and state.” Many seem to think the American founding fathers wrote the phrase into the Constitution. Thinking that way is not only wrong, it’s harmful. The separation of church and work is also wrong—and also harmful.
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