{"id":18617,"date":"2025-02-14T16:24:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=18617"},"modified":"2025-02-14T16:24:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:24:26","slug":"book-review-the-sacredness-of-secular-work-4-ways-your-job-matters-for-eternity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=18617","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW | The Sacredness of Secular Work: 4 Ways Your Job Matters for Eternity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"662\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sacred-secular.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sacred-secular.jpeg 662w, https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sacred-secular-199x300.jpeg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I have been on a Jordan Raynor kick lately.  I appreciate his heart for pointing to life in Christ as the lens through which we must view everything else.  Everyone we encounter is eternal&#8230;meaning that everything we do has eternal significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I loved <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sacredness-Secular-Work-Matters-Eternity-ebook\/dp\/B0C3ZHQ71R\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2J2F5GAOQBW0W&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.fHftsDbywYrhZdcwfxPuIppn_VAIbjm4PxoUqzqm8Wei21P_ILBCdTagqTirv_TtEqyAOOyDVNOAd0aloAsxEJ1bdqu7XJnaYPnt1Gkq2AM.xcXGOUrFSv0p5Orm96qoq1yQBomED2icV7cyff3Nqqs&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=the+sacredness+of+secular+work+jordan+raynor&amp;qid=1739568009&amp;sprefix=jordan+ray%2Caps%2C130&amp;sr=8-1\">The Sacredness of Secular Work<\/a><\/em> as a great reminder for everyone that whatever you do&#8230;God has called you to it and you should glorify Him and serve others through it.  I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Charles Spurgeon, \u201cNothing is secular\u2014everything is sacred!\u201d p. 17<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There\u2019s a quote from theologian Karl Rahner that I think about a lot: \u201cIn the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we learn that ultimately in this world there is no finished symphony.\u201d p.86<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When you meet your Maker, he will likely ask you questions about how you worked in this life. Using our biblically informed imaginations, we can guess that those questions might include the following:[*1] \u201cDid you \u2018give thanks in all circumstances\u2019 at work, even the difficult ones I allowed?\u201d (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18). \u201cDid you do your work with excellence, even when your bosses weren\u2019t watching?\u201d (see Ephesians 6:5\u20136). \u201cDid you show mercy to your team members the way that I showed you mercy?\u201d (see Luke 6:36). p. 115<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our work can create what Celtic Christians call \u201c\u2009\u2018thin places\u2019\u2026where the curtain between heaven and earth seems almost transparent\u201d[14]\u2014experiences that \u201ctrigger a sense of being swept into a timeless moment, a place where time stands still and the breath of eternity rustles through our hearts and minds.\u201d[15] p. 135<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Your work matters for eternity because through it you can scratch off the veil between heaven and earth, revealing glimpses of the kingdom of God in the present. p. 137<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pastor John Mark Comer puts it this way: We\u2019re called to a very specific kind of work. To make a Garden-like world where image bearers can flourish and thrive, where people can experience and enjoy God\u2019s generous love. A kingdom where God\u2019s will is done \u201con earth as it is in heaven,\u201d where the glass wall between earth and heaven is so thin and clear and translucent that you don\u2019t even remember it\u2019s there. p. 138<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Os Guinness says that \u201ca living faith in God is the automatic refusal to accept the world as it is and a restless quest to make it what it should be under God and one day will be again.\u201d p. 140<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Skye Jethani encourages us to expand our thinking on this point: Imagine Christian educators bringing order, beauty, and abundance to schools so students and their families thrive. Imagine Christian business leaders cultivating industries that value people, pay them fairly, and steward natural resources\u2026. Imagine Christian civic leaders passing just laws to ensure evil is restrained and life-giving order is possible. Such Christians would not only bring growth to our world, but they would also be cultivating the presence of [the kingdom] today. p. 144\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>HOW TO BEST POSITION YOURSELF TO MAKE DISCIPLES AT WORK 1. Pray 2. Be So Good They Can\u2019t Ignore You My friend Andrew Scott says that \u201cif we were to live out our lives with excellence for the purposes of God in every sector of society, we would not have to shout so loudly to make our message heard.\u201d p. 1623. Be a Friend4. Identify Yourself as a Christian But what does this look like practically? Because I don\u2019t think most of us can get away with singing hymns in our offices like the Filipino maid. So how can we identify ourselves as Christians in a natural, nonthreatening way that doesn\u2019t cause our co-workers to avoid making eye contact with us? Let me suggest five simple ideas that have worked well for me and others: Ask about your co-workers\u2019 weekend. And when they inevitably ask about your weekend, tell them about the time of worship you participated in at your church. Ask what your colleagues are reading. And again, when they reciprocate the question, talk about a book you\u2019ve recently read about the Christian faith. Tell a co-worker that you\u2019ve prayed for them. Nobody gets mad about someone praying on their behalf. Add something about your faith to your social media bios. You\u2019d be shocked at how many doors this simple practice has opened for me to talk about my faith. Encourage your team to bring their whole selves to work. There\u2019s a trend in business these days that encourages employees to bring their whole selves to work\u2014their sexual identity, stories about their family, their religious beliefs, their political leanings, etc. If you\u2019re in a position of authority in your workplace, lean into this trend! Encourage those who work with you to talk openly about these things. Not only can this lead to higher productivity, but it also gives you an opportunity to identify yourself as a Christ-follower and learn about the spiritual beliefs of those you work with. p. 164 5. Look for Opportunities to Move from the Surface, to the Serious, to the Spiritual 6. Be Prepared to Give a Reason for Your Faith<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been on a Jordan Raynor kick lately. I appreciate his heart for pointing to life in Christ as the lens through which we must view everything else. Everyone we encounter is eternal&#8230;meaning that everything we do has eternal significance. I loved The Sacredness of Secular Work as a great reminder for everyone that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,14,35,16,19,23,28,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-study","category-book-review","category-creative","category-family","category-funny","category-generosity","category-integrity","category-leadership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/sacred-secular.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18619,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18617\/revisions\/18619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}