Higher Ground for the Marketplace

At my first meeting with my mentor, I was asked about my goals and expectations for the upcoming year and how she could best contribute to my growth process.  The answer was simple—to embrace my life as a marketplace Christian with utmost conviction and a steadfast heart.  My role as a Christian in the workplace is something I had taken for granted for a long time, and I had finally come to a point where I realized I had to start struggling for that life, one that is seasoned with grace, kindness, and integrity.

In Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that Christians carry “something unusual, something explicable and something elusive” that is quite distinct from the world.  She further explains that the uniqueness of the Christian personhood is grand and that “there is nothing more tragic than the failure on the part of many professing Christians to realize the uniqueness and the special character of a Christian” (p. 276).

This does not insinuate that Christians are above all others and should carry the “holier than thou” attitude.  Far from it, Christians are called to demonstrate that amazing grace and to execute their responsibilities beyond their own natural abilities.  Christians are called to “separate from all others, and not only from the worst among others, but from the very best and highest among them” (p. 277).  And this can only be done as we acknowledge and demonstrate God-centered love in everything we do.  

Our inability to shine better as marketplace Christians goes beyond our ambitions, greed, and competitiveness.  It is the “self-centered ugliness of sin” that John Piper explains in Learning to Savor the Love of God.  Through this, I’ve come to realize that my shortcomings in the workplace haven’t been my inability to be a “good person.”  Rather, it was my failure to savor the God-centered love of God, because I had all too often tried to put myself at the center of it.

I am grateful to God that He has allowed His rays to shine into my heart to awaken His beauty not only in my personal walk with Him but into the workplace He has called me to serve.  "The ugliness of self-exalting sin is revealed.  The glory of God-exalting love is discovered.  And we set ourselves on a quest to savor it more and more forever and ever.”  And as I set out to continue tasting that truly aligned love He has for me, I know I will be able to live out my call as a Christian with graciousness and the mannerism that will allow me to disarm others and infiltrate the God-centered love and grace to into their lives.  Like the streaming waters, I will walk closer and closer toward that ray and continue moving forth with grace, kindness, and integrity before Him.