“Worldview is closely linked to the creation of culture,” said writer and journalist Terry Mattingly on our BlogTalkRadio show last night. “If you think of culture as hardware, in computer terms,” he went on to say, “worldview would be the software — the lens though which you look at the world, and the make-up of that lens comes from the culture in which you have grown up — what you think is valuable, what you believe, what you think art is. Your social class, your race, and your education all play into how you see the world.”
The key question here ultimately is, “How does the lens through which you see the world affect what you end up doing with your life?” And once you start doing it, the way you do it will be colored by your worldview. This goes for anything and everything you do. I think we sell this way too short in terms of our impact in the world. For instance, how we treat people will be a reflection of knowing they are made by God and loved by God. It makes no difference if you are a grocery clerk or a CEO.
This is where many of us sell ourselves way short in regards to our effect on the culture we live in. This is where our Christian faith has meaning well beyond talking about it. Whatever we do is going to be colored by what colors us.
There is a woman who works in the local market I frequent. She’s sometimes behind the register, but more often than not she floats around the front of the store helping people at the self-checkout area and handling whatever questions come up. She is obviously a believer and treats every person with love and respect. There are times she has literally lifted my spirits by being in the store. She’s not working hard at this, mind you; it’s part of her worldview. She doesn’t love people because she is working really hard at loving people; she loves people because she loves people. She is this way because of what she believes and what she values.
This translates to wherever you are in the marketplace and, of course, to Johnny’s Cafe. If you’re an employer, it colors how you treat your employees. If you’re an employee, it colors how you treat your fellow workers and your employer. There isn’t anything we do that isn’t touched in some way by our beliefs and our values — our worldview.
Terry Mattingly has written an internationally-syndicated religion column that has appeared in over 350 newspapers worldwide for 31 years. He says that after all these years of looking at the world and thinking this way there is hardly anything — sports, politics, art, entertainment, economics, news — that doesn’t touch religion in some way. Knowing your worldview is about becoming conscious of what we believe and value unconsciously, and how it affects what we do.
Be sure and check out Terry Mattingly’s interview. It’s a good one!
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