Jesus Is Our Reality: Part 1

How Can That Impact the Way You Function in the Marketplace?

SUMMARY: We juggle many realities—work, church, the gym—but what if true reality is found in Christ? Explore how a Christ-centered lens changes how you see your workplace.

We live in a world of so many diverse scenes, so many seemingly discordant “realities.” We go to work, and that’s one “reality’ we find ourselves in. We go to church, and that’s another. At the gym and places of work out, we find ourselves faced with yet another cultural reality.

And depending on our personal points of view, some would argue that there are as many realities out there as there are people.

On top of that, Dr. Jesus says many of us occasionally suffer from vision problems. We’re seeing double. We’re misprocessing the things we see. We’re not processing it through the lens of what Christ says about the reality of all things in the Scripture.

Spiritual Aniseikonia

There is a condition known as aniseikonia, or mismatched eyes, that can cause individuals to see objects of different sizes or with different levels of clarity in each eye, leading to a muddled image. This condition can be treated with vision correction methods like glasses or surgery.

But it speaks to a Scriptural condition that, from time to time, might impact the way we properly (or improperly) process reality.

Christ had something to say about it, actually.

22  "The lamp of the body is your eye. If, then, your eye should be single, your whole body will be luminous

23  Yet if your eye should be wicked, your whole body will be dark. If, then, the light that is in you is darkness, how dense is the darkness! ~Matthew 6:22-23 (CLV)

This is the Common Language Translation. The language is a bit archaic, but listen to what it calls for our eyes to be.

Eyes That Are Single

Since we tend to process words in accordance with what they mean in our culture, “single” might be a very confusing concept for us with regard to our eyes.

But in the Greek language and context, the concept made perfect sense.

Single in Greek meant “uncompounded.” It means “not folded over” or doubled in any way. It means that one eye matches the other, and sees things in a “single” (noncompounded) way, because they’re not mismatched, not “folded” over.

How many of us have suffered from "mismatched" eyes in our lives before?

Sunday is one thing, but Monday is another. Religion is one thing, but business and politics are another.

Spirituality is one thing. But worldly reality is another. 

And to parse worldly reality properly, you’ve got to live by the law of the jungle, where might means right and being the biggest dog on the block ensures winning and victory, which, after all, are the greatest of “realities” in many cultural world views.

What If "Reality" Is Something Totally Different From Just What We See

There is a fascinating Scripture about what “reality” is that is often overlooked or ignored because frankly, it’s a bit too abstract for our very results-oriented ways of thinking. It’s found in Colossians 2. It was a response to a struggle these Christians were having over certain religious observances that had come to mean way more than what they were supposed to.

Christ wanted to remind them of something they apparently had one time known, or were supposed to know.

17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ~Colossians 2:17 (NIV)

Take that last phrase at face value.

“. . . the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

Let’s simplify it further. “Reality . . . is found IN Christ.” (Emphasis mine)

When you look at the Marketplace, do you see Jesus?

What Are The Implications of That In the Marketingplace?

What if we are suffering from a bit of spiritual “aniseikonia,” conflating cultural preferences with clarity lensed only through Jesus?

What if we started looking at “reality” in our marketplace settings through the lens of Jesus?

I’d like to press that concept in a new series I’m launching on this blog for 2026. It’s entitled “A Christ-Centered View of Marketplace Reality.”

It’s abstracted from the “We Believe” Doctrinal Statement that serves as the basis of Smiling Icon Ministry (smilingicon.com)

We’re going to explore this biblical concept for cosmic (and Marketplace) reality. How might it affect our ministry in the Marketplace in 2026?