Abiding In Christ by Erasing the Lines Between the Secular and the Sacred

I received an email from a friend who put words to what I had felt many times.

“I just never have enough time to spend with the Lord. I work forty-plus hours a week, commute ninety minutes both ways, oversee elderly parents’ affairs, and take care of my five-year-old son. I’m either on the road, at my desk, or taking care of someone else’s needs. And on top of that, I never feel like I’m doing any of it well. What does God want from me in the middle of all this madness? How can I carve out time for Him? I feel like I’m constantly failing Him!”

Amanda is not alone. I’ve been right there with her. Haven’t you?

We live in a physical realm, and our newly born-again spirits will never be completely satisfied here on earth. There will always be tension between the two. Living in union with the Spirit of God is counterintuitive to the ways of this world. What causes that tension and prevents us from experiencing an unbroken union with Christ? I believe it is the tendency to compartmentalize life into two hemispheres: the secular and the sacred. 

Every day, secular activities vie for our attention, while our times of worship and communion are relegated to Sunday morning worship, early morning Quiet Times, and mid-week Bible studies (if we can fit them in). We spend the majority of our days operating in secular, day-to-day activities and feeling guilty for the lack of time spent in sacred communion with God. And for most of us, a struggle to find the balance between the secular and the sacred wages war in our hearts. We live in the secular and yet long to be in the sacred. The constant flip-flopping between the two is exhausting, and inevitably, we see one as the winner and one as the loser. We wobble on a spiritual tightrope, fearing the slightest misstep will toss us into the canyon of God’s disapproval.

Thankfully, there is a way to wave the white flag of surrender and end the battle’s constant conflict. We can experience true union with Christ when we erase the dividing line and meld the two hemispheres into one, when we learn how to abide.  

From Following to Abiding

“Follow me,” Jesus called, as He walked along the path of life and invited holy hitchhikers to join Him in the greatest adventure of all time. “Come follow me,” He called to the sons of Zebedee (Matthew 7:19). “Follow me,” He called out to Levi and Phillip (Matthew 9:9, John 1:43). “Follow me,” He invited the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:21). Some accepted the invitation, others did not. 

But in Jesus’ final words to his eleven best friends, I see a different sort of invitation: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you,” He urged (John 15:4). Another translation says it this way: “Dwell in Me and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me and I will live in you]” (AMP). And still another says: “Abide in Me, and I in you” (NASB). Jesus invited the disciples to follow after Him while here on earth. The night before He faced the cross, He invited them to abide in Him after he was gone. That is quite a difference. No longer is one person following behind another, but the two become one and move as one. I in Him and He in me; that is the beauty of the sacred union. 

Abiding in Christ does not mean coming into His presence for times of Bible study and prayer, and then walking out of His presence in order to attend to the mundane duties of life that take up the greater part of your day. Your relationship with Jesus is not meant to be experienced in little puffs that refresh for a moment, but rather in the continual breathing in and out of His presence. Abiding. Union. Moving as one.

Abiding in, dwelling in, and remaining in Christ all sound like wonderful ideas. I’m sure you’d agree there is no place we’d rather be. But what does that look like…really …practically? 

Jesus began his lesson in John 15 by comparing our lives to that of a branch attached to or “abiding” on a vine.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains [abides] in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (1, 4-5 note added).

If our serving does not come from the overflow of our abiding in Christ, we will feel drained quickly. But when our activity flows out of a full heart that results from our sacred union, we may be tired but not depleted. And we will bear much fruit in the process.

Erasing the Lines Between the Sacred and the Secular  

What would that look like? Let’s go back to Amanda.

What if Amanda communed with God while she commuted to work? While she worked at her job? While she took care of her family? Do you see how that would help alleviate the false guilt that adds to her feelings of insufficiency? 

The physical or secular realm involves cooking, cleaning, ironing, shopping, vacuuming, laundering smelly clothes, washing dirty faces, and wiping messy bottoms. It involves being a wife, a mother, an employee, an employer, a friend, a student, and a host of other roles and responsibilities that merge on any given day. What could be sacred about all that? Everything. But we’ll get to that in a minute. 

The spiritual or sacred realm includes praying, reading the Bible, going to church, memorizing Scripture, serving the poor, and meditating on meaningful messages. The spiritual aspects of our lives include worship and practicing spiritual disciplines.

I want to suggest that God never intended for the lines separating the secular and the sacred to exist in the first place. Abiding, the sacred, also includes cooking, cleaning, ironing, shopping, vacuuming, laundering smelly clothes, washing dirty faces, and wiping messy bottoms. When you erase the lines between the secular and the sacred, your entire life can become an act of worship. 

How do you put this into practice? By merging the two worlds.

Suppose you acknowledge God’s presence as you walk down the grocery store aisle, drive through the carpool line, sit in the hair stylist’s chair, stir the spaghetti sauce, shampoo your hair, love your husband, or rake leaves in the yard. Praying with your eyes wide open at times is the only way to practice prayer without ceasing. 

Monday always follows Sunday, but when you erase the lines that separate the secular and the sacred, the world becomes your sanctuary. God’s presence is one steady stream.

This was true for Jesus. He never hurried. He never panicked. He was never driven by the tyranny of the urgent. If I were in his sandals, I probably would have been wringing my hands with all I had to accomplish in three and a half years. I can hear myself now: “I’ve got three and a half years to make a difference. How can I cram all the miracles and teaching into this short amount of time?” 

Three and a half years translates into 1,278 days. If you go back and count the days recorded in the four gospels, you’d come up considerably short. So what was Jesus doing on the days that were not mentioned by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? He lived His life. He worked. He ate. He washed. He partied. He prayed. He studied. He meditated. He listened. The Sacred lived in the midst of the secular.

Paul wrote: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” (1 Corinthians 10:31 NASB).

Whatever you do…

Cleaning bathrooms to the glory of God. 

Vacuuming the floor to the glory of God. 

Reading my Bible to the glory of God. 

Singing praises to the glory of God. 

Being intimate with my husband to the glory of God. 

Cooking dinner to the glory of God.

Helping in the soup kitchen to the glory of God. 

Shopping for groceries to the glory of God. 

Mailing packages to the glory of God.

Filing my taxes to the glory of God. 

All things…to the glory of God.

What does “to the glory of God” mean? The Greek word for glory is doxa; it denotes honor or splendor, a reflection of God’s character. We are to reflect God’s character, His ways, and His splendor in everything we do. Discounting sinful behavior, such as sexual perversions, gossip, drug and alcohol abuse, or any number of immoral acts that contradict the life of a Christian, our entire existence, both in the secular and the sacred realm, could and should be an act of worship. When that happens, words such as “do everything as unto the Lord” and “pray without ceasing” become clearer and more within our grasp. 

Yes, we do need times alone with God. Jesus pulled away to be with the Father often. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35). If Jesus, the Son of God, needed to spend extended time alone with his Father, then we certainly do too. However, by acknowledging God’s presence in every aspect of our lives, abiding in Him as we live and move and have our being in Him (Acts 17:28), we will experience the blessed union in all things. 

God longs for you to experience His presence in the spin of the laundry, the sizzle of the cooking, the buzz of children’s chatter, and in the quiet of solitude. From the time God rent the curtain in the Holy of Holies when Jesus took his last breath on the cross, God welcomed you into His presence…not just on so-called holy days, but every day…days. 

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About the Author: Sharon Jaynes is a conference speaker and author of 26 books, including When You Don’t Like Your Story: What if Your Worst Chapter Could Become Your Greatest Victories, The Power of a Woman’s Words, Praying for Your Child and Praying for Your Husband from Head to Toe, and Enough: Silencing the Lies that Steal Your Confidence.

She is past Veep,  and a radio co-host for Proverbs 31 Ministries, co-founder of Girlfriends in God, and an avid blogger. Sharon is a storyteller who loves weaving stories and Biblical principles to encourage and empower women to walk in courage and confidence as they grasp their true identity as a child of God and a co-heir with Christ. Her passion is to help women have a better story with Jesus as the hero.  Sharon and her husband, Steve, call NC home.