“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
—G.K. Chesterton, Chapter 5, What’s Wrong With The World, 1910

In my circle of friends, people are still chipping away at the problem. A friend in the restaurant business sent me what he wrote his wife and adult children about his attempts to fully integrate his life. Here’s an excerpt where his letter touches on spirituality and work.

Christians are just as much in a hurry as everyone else—more so really because we try to do everything everyone else does plus have a quiet time, go to church, run a ministry.
“Got to be there in 10 minutes—and it’s a 20-minute drive. Haven’t even had time to say hello to God this morning—so I grab a tape and use the 20-minute drive to listen to a sermon. It’s good stuff. I arrive and get out of the car feeling better…” This is the daily pattern for many of us.

Good sermons replace personal Bible study. Digging for ourselves (in the yard or the Scripture) is just too hard and time consuming in our hectic day, so we hire it out. The gardener digs the hole to plant the flowers, and though I get to enjoy their beauty, my muscles don’t develop, and I learn nothing about the soil. And I skip spiritual digging too, allowing the hired pastor’s sermon to show me the beauty of God, yet I never develop my own mind, faith or understanding by wrestling through the verses on my own. My life remains unchanged—and I don’t even realize it. I think I’m spiritually well fed, but in reality I’m starving to death!

The resultant me is someone who thinks he’s operating on a biblical foundation but is in fact operating on a worldly one.

I start my morning in the Bible with a quiet time. God affirms my beliefs. I remember the values I hold dear—humility, servanthood, trust in Christ. Then I head off to work to try and behave “Christianly.”

I don’t get very far. A guest’s complaint letter greets me. Then Dave calls to say the new pantry cook quit. The daily report shows we had a $60 shortage in the till, and Marie reminds me I’m not prepared for the team meeting. Fear, anger, pride and frustration all well up. I dash off an answer to the unhappy guest, making a note to meet with Conner and the server whose rudeness caused the letter. I sigh aloud as I prepare to run yet another ad for a cook, fuming inside about Dave’s continued ineptness as a manager. I wonder if the new hostess is a thief. And I sit down to prepare for the team meeting feeling like a failure for being unprepared—and mad at Marie for “making” me feel that way. None of those behaviors flow out of my biblical beliefs. They’re all typical worldly reactions to everyday stress.

It seems to me there are three questions I face every day:

1. Whose glory: God’s or mine?
2. Where’s my trust: In God or myself?
3. Where’s my hope: In the Creator or in created things?

I keep getting the answer wrong—not every day, but way too often. And I’m sick of it. I’m sick of it and I really want to get it right.

He’s not alone. He may feel like he is because so few people in his position tell the truth about such things but really, we’re all rowing in the same boat. This is one reason we developed the Working Together. It’s designed for a few friends committed to helping each other work Christianly in decidedly difficult circumstances. Everyone I know has something to gain from that kind of support. Because, really, no one should have to lie when they answer the question, “Howzit goin?”