I once heard my pastor, Jeff Manion of Ada Bible Church, describe the Christian life as a pie. We allot slices of the pie for major parts of our life, sectioning it off in terms of the way we view things. Slice 1: Family, Slice 2: Friends, Slice 3: Work, etc, etc, leaving 1 piece of the pie for religion. However, God would say that this viewpoint is all wrong and leads to complacency. Rather than being a slice of our pie, God is actually the pie pan. Our belief in His sovereignty makes him the pan that forms and holds each piece. He is not one section, equal to all others, He is the head and holder of them all. The pan shapes each piece of the pie. I love this visual and couldn’t agree more.
As children of the living King we have been called to a new way of life. A life where He is sovereign over all we say and do. The work we do on this earth is not for our own glory, but for His.
I started my business 4 years ago and quickly realized that I was incompetent on my own. I needed His guidance through prayer and scripture to lead my path. As a fallen human I cannot run a business well on my own, but He, being greater than I, equips and steps in when I fall short. As in each piece of the pie, I needed Him to shape my business, to carve a path in a secular world that often makes decisions without consulting Him. As I began my journey of entrepreneurship through the eyes of a believer I saw a different road to walk. I started noticing passages of scripture that I had never noticed before, and I started seeing a difference in the way businesses were run when they were run in alignment with Him.
I started craving more resources for information on this, but often came up short. I started talking to other business owners and found that they felt similarly. How do we serve clients differently when it is through the eyes of Christ? How do we deal with profit when we are told not to love money? How do we say no to things when we know our plate is too full, while we feel called to serve as many people as we can? Can being a small female business owner be a mission and grounds to make disciples? Well the answer to the last one is yes, absolutely yes. The rest, we’re gonna talk about.
“Today is the proving ground for what I believe and of whom I worship.” – Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary
The little daily decisions we make may seem small and insignificant, but that is false. We have been called ambassadors of Christ. We would promote something we are an ambassador of; therefore, we need to be making sure the way we live our lives promotes what we believe. How is the world supposed to know we are believers? Matthew 7:16 says “by their fruit you will recognize them.” So why do we separate work from faith? When we just say Christianity applies in day to day life, relationships, and on the weekends we are missing a huge opportunity to minister through the work we do in our businesses. I’m not talking about having an up front and personal “come to Jesus moment” with each of our customers or clients. I’m talking about showing what we believe by our actions and the way we do business.
I am 21. I have been raised in a Christian family, I have attended church and Christian schools almost all of my life. I am at the beginning of my years and have so much life left to live, so many lessons to learn. I have been sheltered and raised in a wonderful environment that nurtured faith (though that does not mean I haven’t experienced fire). I don’t have a degree in theology, I haven’t attended seminary or even any type of college in general. I am barely skimming the surface of Biblical knowledge and I feel so unqualified to write posts like this. But then, there is Jesus. He is the mediator and final sacrifice, and He changes everything. I believe that as a child of God who has accepted Christ, He has already done the qualifying job. I am broken and a sinner, but He calls me worthy, capable, and ready to make disciples, even when I feel so far from those things. He gives us the Holy Spirit to speak the words when we don’t have them and to help us understand scripture when we feel so small.
I believe the only qualification to speaking about the gospel is to believe in Christ, and I do. So I’m here, praying that He will lead and speak through the words I type.
I say this because as we journey together into these topics I want to be clear on where I stand and not give the impression that I am anything more than I am. I believe the ability to share the gospel is grafted into our DNA, the same way and same day we are grafted into the body of Christ. So, unqualified as I am by the world’s standards, here I am. I want to start a conversation. I desire to create a space where we can come together to discuss the harder topics of business, and the beautifully sweet element that faith adds to handling the call of entrepreneurship.
So let’s dive in. Next week I will be back to talk about why I believe work matters. How we know it matters to God, and why doing it different should matter to us. Join the discussion in the comments and on Instagram. Tell me, what are you struggling with? What walls do you run up against? I’m probably right there with ya! Let’s talk about it and bear each others burdens, pushing each other towards the Father along the way.
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