Last week for our youth group meeting, I told the kids to pick any secular, meaning non-religious, song. As long as it was appropriate, they could pick it. They were tasked with finding as many things as possible in the song lyrics that reflected God, Christianity, their faith journey, or anything in between. After they did this, they shared their song, the artist, the specific lyric, and how it reflected anything and everything Jesus.
I loved this activity. It introduced me to a lot of new music, and we went crazy with our analysis. This was one of my top 10 favorite meetings for sure.
But, as they know, and as I am sure you all as my readers know by now, I do nothing in ministry without intention. So, here is the lesson:
If we look at any number of outwardly spoken Christian artists, athletes, actors, performers, or any person with a “celebrity” title, we know that the work they are doing isn’t exactly “Christian.” What do I mean by this? Well, playing football isn’t a
“Christian sport” or singing songs that make the Top 100 list aren’t always about God. These, in our society, are considered to be secular activities and careers. This is because they do not include religion, based on the way they are inherently designed, or because of the way society perceives them. Religion is excluded. Despite this, all of these famous Christians outwardly do God’s work by bringing God into their “secular” careers. The people I know and love in my own life work in “secular” fields: law enforcement, retail, social work, environmental science, animal rescue, marketing and finance, you name it. These are fields that, for most of us, we wouldn’t consider when thinking about ways or careers to glorify God. For many, God isn’t inherently brought into these fields, as I said before. But what the Christians I know do, is they glorify Him by using their gifts and talents for Him, in a secular world! They give back to God what He gave us to use in a world that doesn’t always acknowledge Him.
All we do should glorify Him. We know this. But some people misunderstand this. I had a Christian friend in college who was upset. She wanted to go into accounting, but felt guilty that she wasn’t going into ministry. She had the wrong idea that her career and field had to be ministry, because she thought that ministry was the only way she could glorify Jesus. Accounting wasn’t a “Jesus career” or a way to glorify God, in her mind.
Real talk: if we all did my job, we’d all be dead. Who would grow our food? Who would take care of me when I get my biannual sinus infection? Who would make the soap I need to shower? Who would make the music I listen to in the car? Who would make the laptop I am currently typing on? No one would get anything done. We don’t all have to be in ministry to glorify God. Here’s the thing: we need to minister to those around us and glorify God, no matter where we are called. Always. We are called to bring our talents and gifts to the secular world! Doctors, teachers, lawyers, everyone is out there (hopefully) doing God’s will, even if it means that we aren’t taking about Him. We’re living for Him.
So there are three big take-aways:
1) Like I just wrote, we bring Jesus into the secular world. Our callings in the secular world might not be careers for Jesus, but our calling in this life is to bring Jesus to others and to be a light for Christ, no matter what we are doing. We offer up what we’re doing for Him.
2) We need to see Him in the secular world. We know we should bring God into everything we do. But everything that is good, we should see Him in, too. Which relates back to our activity: we brought Jesus into the secular songs, and we needed to see Him in places He wasn’t written into. We saw Him in lyrics and we saw Him in the artists who wrote and sang those songs. Going off this: we should see Him in other people’s careers, labor, and what they produce. More importantly? We need to acknowledge that God made them! Whether the person is Christian or not, we need to see Christ in him or her.
Bringing God into the secular world doesn’t mean we devalue God. In reality, it means that we invite God to be present in places He’s been intentionally (or unintentionally) excluded from. In order to see Him, we need to look for Him. And it’s not that hard to find Him if we actually look!
3) Go! Recently, we celebrated Pentecost, the birth of the Catholic Church. The people in that upper room were terrified: Jesus had just physically left! But the Holy Spirit told them, in more or less words, to just “go!” As we reflect on this mission to go and share the good news, to bring Christ into our lives, and to be a witness to the faith, how do we do this in the secular world? How can you, with Christ, shine for those around you in a world which seeks to turn our eyes, ears, minds, hearts, bodies, and souls away from Him? You and Jesus need to work together, to bring Him into all things, and to see Him in all things.
You can start really small, friends! Send a happy text to a friend who needs encouragement, or smile at a stranger. Say a quick prayer for someone who hurt you that day, or offer up folding your laundry for someone who is struggling. Bring Christ into your world. Be a rebel, friend! Don’t be afraid to be bold in faith, and don’t be afraid to love as Christ does, even in a world which, in so many ways, seeks to reject and exclude Him.
If you’re looking for ways to bring Him into your every day, I invite you to try out my faith journal called 7 Ways in 7 Days: Ignite Your Faith! It’s an easy resource to use, and it’s completely free. I’ve used it to help me bring Christ into the world around me, and I feel all the more powered by the Lord. You can find it here.
Angelica I think your post is great. It reminds me of a class I’m taking in the Word of Fire Institute called Evangelization of the Culture by Jared Zimmerman. He explains in the class that in all we do in culture we should center Jesus as a focus. Bring Him into whatever we do. If Jesus, according to our faith, bible and church teachings, finds it well we should embrace it. Like Twitter. I have an account on Twitter and I usually tweet daily scripture versus or lately whatever my Padre Pio app tweets me. On Twitter, you’re not going to find many holy or Christian based profiles or tweets right?! So, what I do is I use Twitter, a secular platform, to share the good news of the Lord.
Thank you
Amen, sister! Thanks for sharing this beautiful story. You never know who your Tweet is going to reach, and how it will touch their lives, especially when they aren’t expecting to see it on such a secular (and truthfully anti-Christian) platform. What a gift you’re sharing! My prayers are with you. 🙂