For the lay faithful, the Christian life encompasses two main tasks: to sanctify the world and to perfect the temporal order.
Although the two tasks are complementary, they each have their own proper sphere.
The first has to do directly with faith in Christ and sharing that faith with others.
The second has to do with work in whatever field it might be— work that helps to make the world a little better, such as in beauty, in justice, in truth, in health, in quality of life, and other such areas.
Although these two tasks ought not to be separated, they also ought not to be confused.
Frequently, Christians can hold the view, implicitly or explicitly, that to be faithful to Christ in the workplace means somehow talking about one’s faith with one’s coworkers in order to give witness to Christ.
Now, this certainly can happen— it often should happen.
And when it does happen, it is a beautiful witness indeed.
But to think of living out our faith at work in only these terms is too limited.
It over-spiritualizes our work and ignores the integrity and goodness of the work itself.
As a result, it narrows the possibilities of glorifying God through our work.
Another way of over-spiritualizing our work is to put disproportionate emphasis on praying during the workday.
Of course, we should be praying during our workday; in fact, if we don’t, we’re bound to lose sight of the ultimate goal of glorifying God through our work.
So, prayer is indispensable— but it isn’t enough.
There is prayer and there is work, and sometimes, we can pray while we work.
But often, it is the case that intense work requires our full concentration.
In these moments, prayer would actually diminish the quality of the work we are ultimately offering up to God.
In short, prayer and work are complementary.
But just as there are times when prayer should be undertaken exclusively and wholeheartedly, so too are there moments when work should be our sole task and focus.
Ultimately, over-spiritualizing our work means ignoring or even negating the goodness of creation and thus the wisdom of the Creator.
Creation, and all the tasks associated with it, are meant to be taken up into the spiritual realm, but this doesn’t happen by turning our eyes from the work to our faith.
No, it happens by turning the eyes of faith to our work and seeing in the work itself an opportunity to cooperate with God in restoring and perfecting the world he has created.
Today, recall in prayer the immense gift of creation and thank the Lord for the chance to collaborate with him in bringing that gift a little closer to perfection.
