Wear Only One Hat

Recently I was conversing with some colleagues about our different professions. One of them remarked that it is simply unfeasible and impossible to play nice in the business world, and insinuate that only a cutthroat approach works when doing business. The same person, I know, is a faithful churchgoer. Whether or not he intended to do so, his comments resonated in my mind as if he were dividing or sequestering his professional life from his religious life. In other words, he dons one hat during the week, and dons another hat on Sundays. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, and perhaps I am being hyper-judgmental. But this to me seems like moral compartmentalization. I readily acknowledge that to some degree I do this myself, and it is a demon or temptation against which I regularly battle. But this conversation with my colleagues reminded me of the necessity I have to maintain integrity; that is, to maintain my values, ethics, religion, etc., regardless of the stage on which I am standing, And regardless of where I am or with whom I am.

Be the same. To thine own self (and to God) be true. Don't compartmentalize your values.