by Mason Rutledge, President

We call it “One Soul Self.”

It is an integrated life that it is the similar at the gym vs. church, vs. in the car with the family vs. leading your business. It is being the same recognizable person from one situation to the next.

That was simple in 1822. You were the same person because you literally didn’t have that many audiences.

It’s much different in 2022. You may travel 30 minutes to work where your network doesn’t know your home life. You could travel a different 30 minutes to a church that is so large that nobody really knows you. The gym people don’t know the work people who don’t know the church people, but do they all know the same person?

This is integration. Integration of the self is the sign of a mature adult. Author Chap Clark wrote about the layered living of adolescents. This is the teenager who kisses their praying mom goodbye as he leaves the SUV and bounces onto the sidewalk with his friends where they are cussing up a blue streak. That is the adolescent’s life. They are trying to survive and adapt to do so.

That kind of living in adults is a recipe for failure. It is in-par with schizophrenia. You are a different person in any number of situations.

The C3 Forum exists to bring the leader into “One Soul Self.” It is in the C3 Forum that a business leader meets regularly with a committed group of peers and talks about their faith, family and “factory.” The various relationship circles are pushed together. Obviously, relationships vary at some level, but it is the Venn in the middle of those circles that should be large, pronounced and evidence of “One Soul Self.”

Ezekiel 11:19 says, “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh”

God’s call for an integrated life is evident in scripture. We think of David who had private views and then private affairs, followed by private plans and finally a secret murder.

Read I Corinthians 9. Paul lays out to the Corinthians the importance of living as “One Soul Self.” As its founder, Paul loved this church, which was mostly made up of Gentiles. Paul wrote to them demanding higher ethical and moral standards. The church at Corinth was proud, claiming spiritual superiority, yet they had legal battles in the public courts and were involved in sexual misbehavior.

It is in this key chapter that Paul lays out this passage which can be misapplied in our current corporate culture. In verses 19-23, Paul says “I have made myself a servant to all.” It is in this passage that to those outside the law; I because one outside the law and to the weak, I became weak; to the Jews, I became a Jew. “I have become all things to all people” vs. 22b.

This can be applied by those in the corporate sector today as follows:

• “To the salespeople, I became a salesperson, sharing jokes with them in the bar on a business trip late into the night.”
• “To the crew, I became like them, sharing crookedly in the shop.”
• “At the gym, I became a ‘gym rat,’ believing that my outward appearance is vital.”
• “With the gang on the bikes, I prided myself on burying others, as we all did.”

And we may even do all of this under the guise of, I’m building friendships, connections, and showing that God is “relatable” or, even, “fun.”

In the process we’ve missed the whole point of Paul’s call to the Corinthians, “that I may win some with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

It’s important to connect with the salespeople and the shop crew and the folks at the gym and the peloton, but how do those connections compare with how you connect in the Board room, in the pew, or at your dining room table?

Integration is very difficult today. Much more challenging than in Corinth. Shoot, if you don’t like who you are, live as an avatar. Yet, God’s call is or us to work from “One Soul Self.”

Joy is built on that integration. Joy can not be built on an unsure, insecure foundation.

Questions for Reflection/Journaling

1. How might you define “One Soul Self?”
2. There is a natural difference to situations. You are different with your spouse than you are with some stranger you met at the gym. It’s fairly obvious, but take a moment to consider how are they different. Now take a moment, how do you want to be the same person?
3. Let’s be honest, where are you most likely to not align? Why?
4. What is your “One Soul Self?” What has God created in you at your core?
5. How does knowing your “One Soul Self” make you more secure in who you are? How will you operate differently?