The phone rang and I answered in my normal professional tone, “Human Resources, this is Willetta Proctor, How may I help you?”  After the long pause from the person on the other end, I suddenly realized, I had just answered my own home phone!  Fortunately, the person was a friend and we laughed about how I forgot to turn off my “office voice” instead of saying “Hey girl, how you doin’?”

This is an example of what is referred to today as “code switching”.  That is when a person feels they must use a different type of speech, even behavior or appearance to adapt to the environment they are in.  Most of us know this has actually been around for years – way back to days of slavery when there were different expectations for slaves who worked in the field versus slaves who worked in the house. It wasn’t until recently, I learned there was an official name for it.  Code switching unfortunately means you are masking part of who you are to adjust to a predominant culture or environment.

For many people, returning home after a long day of work, you really appreciate the feeling of letting go and being who you really are you.  You begin to realize how mentally draining code switching can be.  It’s similar to that feeling you get when you walk in the door and kick off those heels – immediate relief!

But are we “code switching” when it comes to our spiritual lives?  Are we behaving and speaking the same way in church as we are outside of church?  

My husband tells me when he walks into the barbershop,  the barber shouts out “Hi, Pastor!”  This is a warm greeting but it is also a signal to everyone in the shop that they need to watch their language and put away any inappropriate reading material.  It might have been a little uncomfortable for some while he was there, but it occasionally opened the floor for some good spiritual conversation.  In this situation, my husband was not changing who he was, but the customers felt they needed to change who they really were for that moment.

Are you adapting to the environment around you or is the environment adapting to you?  What does the Bible say about this?

 James 1:8  says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” This means that a person cannot be relied on who is not consistent in what they do.

Ephesians 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;  23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;  24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” 

This means that when we accepted Christ in our life, an immediate change should have started.  As a new person, we begin to mature spiritually. Our friends and family should begin to see a change in speech, behavior, and interests.