Act on this word. If all you do is listen to it, you are deceiving yourselves.

 James 1:22

If you found your way here, you are searching for solutions; maybe for yourself, a friend, family, community, business, other.  What are you seeking, cures to depression, loneliness, anxiety?   Or improvement in career, life, purpose, meaning, joy or simply wisdom. 

Disparate things can be true –the principles contained within are Christian, yet they function for the benefit of all, including non-believes.  God’s design does not rely on dogma, words or beliefs, rather action.

To be clear, the bible is not merely a set of beliefs and theologies, but a guidebook for everyone living in this complicated, secular, modern world. 

Want greatness…serve the rest.  Mark 10:43

Good advice for the soul, but not only the soul.  One doesn’t need to be Mother Teresa to practice service for it is clearly solid life advice.  A few examples quickly come to mind.  In business, there is value in finding a need and addressing it.   There is reward in making the whole better.  The best friends contribute.  Science proves we are happier when we help.  Truly we could spend years going deep into its secular applications and hundreds of other scriptural passages.

Come and see for yourself.  John 1:46

Once you see the connection between scripture and secular life you can’t unsee it.  My hope is the insight into what you seek come through two stories:

God’s Guidebook to Business…as taught by an angel

God’s Guidebook to Purpose, Meaning and Happiness…as taught by an angel

I am sure you can guess their subject matters.  The stories revolve around Christian-ish, career driven Tom and Catherine, a coffee serving angel who helps uncover the connection between scripture and life.   Though the stories are not autobiographic, they were lived.

While there is some partial overlay of principles, the two books approach their matters differently.  Business was written years earlier.  It emanated from a mix of curiosity, observation, experimentation and wonderment at the measurable results and career growth that come from alignment with God’s Way. 

Purpose, Meaning and Happiness on the other hand, grew out of a desperate need to solve and prevent a personal and societal epidemic of loneliness, listlessness, depression, anxiety, boredom, call it what you want.  The path to Purpose leads to greater opportunities in business and life in ways previously not considered. Whether one is at the starting line or stuck in the middle, it never fails to deliver.

One difference between the books is that the principles of Business have generally become habits have resulted in continued success in this area.  Which is curious, because the path to Purpose also results in abundant and wide opportunities; but those very opportunities ultimately fill our lives with wonderful distractions and at the same time tugging one away from clarity.  It is at these times, that conscious effort even to only a couple behaviors brings us back to the path of Purpose, Meaning and Happiness.

Let me know what you think.