No one likes to feel alone.
I think that is especially true when they are facing a rather large and uncommon issue in their life. I had been feeling just that way concerning a personal struggle over the past two years and especially at the beginning of this year.
For those that know me well they may attest that "Jeff just isn't the old Jeff that I used to know". I have heard that being said about others over my lifetime and usually in the context of that person in question making a turn for the worse. No one likes to hear about good people having fallen. I'd like to think that I have gone the other way. Not thinking I'm above any other person, but perhaps attaining a better state of mind, being more at peace - having oneness. The genesis of this growth in my life began with my frustration of living in "duality". I actually thought that I was coining a phrase as I thought that I was going through this particular issue on my own. I couldn't have been more wrong nor more pleasantly surprised to learn that I wasn't.
The duality that I speak of is this: I was on the one hand aspiring to live a Christ-centered life by night and on the weekends and by day having to tuck that away in the secular world. Keep quiet, fit-in and remain "PC." Even worse, I was not acting in a way that really reflected who I really now was. I found myself often reverting back to the old knuckled-head self that I was once famous for.
There are many reasons to "pocket" your beliefs while being in public, if for no other reason not wanting to offend someone that may not share your beliefs. No one wants to be accosted by someone regarding their particular brand of faith. However, considering my profession specifically - change was eminent I feel that the gospel speaks such timeless wisdom regarding finance, interacting with people with caring and doing it all for a higher cause - keeping it a secret just wasn't an option for me. In short I wanted to be "Jeff the Christian Financial Advisor."
Even for the believer you probably feel the awaiting strife for me if I were to speak of and market myself as such. Well, I guess it's too late, because that is who I am now. The good news, I found a group of amazing and talented financial advisors out there many of whom receive intensive mentoring at Kingdom Advisors. These industry leaders have simply been an inspiration to me. They represent some of the best and the brightest people in my industry that seamlessly ingrate Biblical wisdom into our modern day financial matters. The result is extraordinary success, joy and peace of mind for the client.
In addition to the change in my financial planning practice I am in the process of creating (with the aid of some amazing people that share my vision) an organization that will offer professionals: tools, resources, prominent speakers while fostering wisdom, strength and confidence to eliminate their own duality. The Christian Business Network has begun. More on that in the future.
The ultimate reason for this monologue is that I want to share a book. A great book. A book for you who may have a similar struggle as the one that I shared or simply want to find a more complete self. The Book is "The integrated Life" by Ken Eldred. Read it.
Experience the Powerful Advantage of Integrating Your Faith and Work
We’re all exhausted. We struggle with conflicting demands of life—work, family, and faith. We sense an unsettling disconnectedness between those competing spheres. How do we resolve the tension between work and spiritual life?
What if we recognized a deep connection between faith and business? What if biblical values weren't roadblocks but actually the source of successful business? What if the real goal of business were more noble than profit maximization? What if we could see our everyday work as having spiritual value? What if we could approach it as ministry? What if it were our calling, a calling as high as that of a pastor or missionary? What if God cared deeply about our work and wanted to be involved? And what if we could even partner with him in our business?
The Integrated Life reveals the secrets to:
- Bridging the work-faith divide, thus ending the compartmentalization in our lives that tends to burn us out
- Understanding the erroneous messages from both business and church, which lead to compartmentalization and disintegration in the first place
- Debunking the fallacious separation of church and business, which actually share a common goal
- Living a new paradigm of work that views it as a calling and sacred ministry
The Integrated Life is punctuated with:
- Practical steps, concrete principles, and rules of thumb that lead to abundant living in work and faith
- Inspirational and instructional real-world stories of the author and others in the marketplace, from CEOs to grocery baggers, who have found ways to integrate their faith and their work
- An exciting and motivating picture of how the marketplace and society can be transformed through business people who are willing to bring their faith to work
Order it now at Amazon.
I hope that you enjoy this resource as much as I have. You're not alone in feeling this way. God doesn't want only our "off-time" he wants our life in full. How can you change your life to honor the Lord "all day" while feeling more complete and positively affecting everyone that you come in contact with?
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