I shouldn’t be writing this one.
I shouldn’t be putting this on a blog, especially not on a day like Monday.
But there might be others out there who need this information. There might be other people who will benefit, greatly, from this. You’ll need to lean in close though, because I’m only going to say it once:
I’m part of a secret Christian underground at work.
I know, I know, it’s pretty exciting. I’m not sure how it started, but it’s true. For the last year or so I’ve become deeply immersed in a covert society of Christians that operates in the shadows. (I really feel like I should get a cloak of some sort as a member of this world, but no one agrees with me yet on this point.)
If you’ve never personally been involved in a group like this, there are a few things you need to know:
1. Look for “cubicle clues.”
I keep a Bible on my desk. A huge one, it weighs like 27 pounds. That’s a no brainer, but there are other signs you can look for to see if someone who sits near you is part of the underground. Church bulletin board, Bible coordinates “PHIL 3:14” on a white board, dried up palm branch from a Spring Sunday. I made a whole list you can check for.
2. Listen for the words.
If you are ever in a quarterly review meeting and someone says, “I gotta tell you, the Q1 numbers this year are great. We have really been blessed,” watch out. That’s a “verbal flare,” something a Christian underground member throws up to let you know they are there. Another great one is, “Our budget numbers are going through a really tough season right now.” Season, love it!
3. Check out email lists.
The other day, a friend at work said, “I was looking at that list of people you emailed about the Christian event, I didn’t know they were all interested in faith.” Did you catch what he just said? He got an email from me about God stuff and then deftly scanned all the other names that the email was sent to in order to see if there were any clues released about the identities of other underground members.
4. Make sure you lay out your prayer requests.
The first thing you want to do if you find your way into a secret Christian underground, is trade prayer requests. For instance, a few months ago me and another person at work shared that we were both down with the King. (Run DMC reference) We immediately started talking about who in the department we were praying for, what specific things were on our heart. We might not have said it, but there was definitely the sense that we were laying out our prayer requests, “Yeah, I’ve got the fifth floor covered, do we have any operatives down on the third floor?”
Hopefully, these clues will make finding and ultimately joining a secret Christian underground that much easier. Granted, once you form one, you really can’t keep it a secret. You know, the whole let your light shine, you are a city on a hill. That kind of thing. It’s in the Bible. Google it. I promise.
Have you ever been part of a secret Christian underground at work?