In the World, Of the World

Back in my college days, our campus Christian fellowship talked a lot about being “in the world, but not of the world.” Being young and confused about prepositions in the spiritual life, I never understood what that meant.

Thirty years later, I think I’m starting to get it.

I have always been in love with my career (specifically, writing ad and marketing copy). It has been a larger part of my identity than I ever cared to admit. I adored playing with words and being in demand for doing it well. Running my own business served as a vehicle for healing some of the major issues in my early life.

As I began to respond to a different call, though—the call that brought this blog into being—my zealous attachment to career suddenly faded. I began to see everything that appalled me about the advertising industry: the bending of truth, the overwhelming clutter of public life, the quest for awards. Perhaps because I wanted to leave advertising behind, the call to spiritual writing began to feel like a call to a career of spiritual writing.

I might be called to that career someday, but it’s not the case for now. Instead, as far as I can tell, my calling right now is precisely to what I’m doing right now: spiritual writing as part of my workday, copywriting as most of my workday.

As I’ve settled into that, something amazing has happened. I’ve learned not to love my career in advertising, but to like it. Somehow the prayer and the spiritual writing that frame my day keep my job in perspective—so I’m free to pursue it joyfully without finding my identity in it.

Is this what it means to be in the world, but not of the world?

I suspect it might be. Jesus wasn’t the only one to allude to this idea. Buddhism (as far as I understand it) emphasizes detachment from temporal things and compassion for all beings; the bodhisattvas—who are completely free to enter nirvana, but “stay behind” to guide others to enlightenment—are the role model for this. They are, in short, in the world but not of it.

It is a liberating, exhilarating place to be. The need for control falls away. We can live into our calling without concern for results. We can orient ourselves toward the eternal without denying the dignity of the everyday. We can take each day as it comes, for the blessing it is. No wonder the spiritual masters invite us there.