At this point, there is no doubt that the hit show Severance on Apple TV+ is a global phenomenon. At the end of the first season, my Instagram algorithm was full of memes and fan theories—and I know I was not alone. I enjoyed every episode equally. (If you know, you know.)
The series explores a creepy but not unimaginable idea. What if we could surgically split our consciousness into two distinct selves? One, our “outie”—the kind of people we are outside of work; and second, our “innie”—who we are at work.
It is a dark parody—or perhaps a mockery—of modern “work-life balance.” Through brilliant storytelling and masterful cinematography, Severance reveals the horror and dehumanising consequences of such a split. The “innie” has no memory of life beyond the office walls. The “outie” has no knowledge of what happens at work. They share a body but not a life.
The Temptation to Compartmentalise, All the Time
For many of us navigating the stress, monotony, and high-stress pressure of the Indian corporate grind, it may sound tempting to sever that side from yourself. Imagine showing up at 9:30 a.m., and the very next moment, it is 6:30 p.m. You have done a full day’s work, and you do not remember a thing. You collect your paycheck, and “someone else”—your innie—did all the heavy lifting.
God never meant for us to live in severance.
In the post-pandemic era of hybrid work, sometimes our bedrooms double as boardrooms and the boundary between personal and professional has dissolved. If that is your experience, maybe you long to compartmentalise—to create neat walls between your work self and your real self.
To be clear, compartmentalisation is not bad in itself. In high-pressure fields like medicine, therapy, or social work, it can be a helpful skill. But even then, the goal is not to stay divided, but to move toward integration. Even in the most demanding roles, we are still complex people. The invitation of the gospel is to live and work out of the wholeness God provides, not disintegration.
A Critique of Fragmentation
God never meant for us to live in severance. In his grace, he created us to be whole people. The true horror of Severance lies in how familiar it feels. Many of us already live as divided selves. We put on a professional mask from 9:30 to 6:30—suppressing emotion, creativity, vulnerability, or anything deemed inefficient.
We switch to “work mode” and leave behind the anxious parent, the conflicted young adult, the artist yearning for colour, the dreamer bursting at the seams, the doubter questioning God, or the romantic aching for intimacy. And after compartmentalising all that, we label it maturity, professionalism, or success.
But this severance is precisely what God intends for the church to disrupt. The church exists to bear witness to our integration and wholeness—to proclaim that every part of us, and every role we carry, belongs to God.
The gospel calls us to integration and wholeness.
So it may come as no surprise that Lumon—the fictional, all-powerful corporation at the centre of Severance—seems to go to great lengths to replace the church. Instead, it offers its own version of purpose, devotion, and even salvation.
On the surface, Lumon looks like any other multinational corporation: cubicles, HR, departments, performance reviews, and awkward team-building exercises. But under the surface, it operates like a cult. It demands not just performance but allegiance.
The company expects employees to believe in the “greater purpose” of their work—even if they have no idea what they do. Corporate jargon is baptised into religious mantras. HR language plays the role of Scripture. Metrics become morality. Finishing quarterly objectives is framed as salvation.
Sadly, this is not far from real life. In many Indian corporate environments, the demand for hyper-productivity, flawless optics, and sacrificial loyalty is intense. Faith, family, and emotional wholeness; all are subtly pushed to the sidelines. It encourages us to pursue a vision of salvation for which the measuring scale is exclusively output. Also, it demands that we amputate the parts of ourselves that do “perform.”
The Gospel: A Better Way to Be Human
The gospel calls us to integration and wholeness. Jesus does not just save our “spiritual selves” for Sundays and leave our Monday selves to fend for themselves. He redeems the whole person— body, mind, heart, ambition, relationships, dreams, labour, and longings.
You belong to him— not just a part of you, but the whole of you. And yes, the Indian office—with its KPIs, performance decks, and politics—is under his sovereignty too. His Spirit steps into the spreadsheet, the shop floor, the Slack thread, the boardroom, and says, “This, too, belongs to me.”
It is probably no coincidence that in the final episode of Season 1, Severance offers a strangely gospel-like image. Dylan G., one of the most unlikely heroes, holds the override switch in a cross-like position—arms outstretched, body straining. Through his work, the innies, who have never seen the outside world, can finally step into the light. It is subtle, but powerful and points to a greater story.
Jesus has done much more for us than Dylan—literally, not metaphorically. On the cross, with arms stretched out, he bore the weight of all our fragmentation and shame. He took the full burden of our severed selves and declared, “It is finished.”
He made a way for us to step into the light, not as half-selves or performative versions of ourselves, but as whole, healed human beings.
God’s Vision for Human Beings
The biblical vision of a human being is not of severed selves, but of one whole life lived under the loving lordship of Christ. As Paul writes in Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
So while Severance toys with the fantasy of switching off our work selves, it ultimately exposes the cost—isolation, confusion, and a profound loss of humanity. It leaves us longing for something more, not just a better balance, but a deeper integration. We long for a way of living where work and life are not enemies, but reconciled. And isn’t that exactly what the gospel offers us?
For those navigating the Indian corporate world, the challenge is clear: resist the lie that compartmentalisation is the only way to survive. The invitation of Jesus is to live a seamless, integrated life—where faith does not retreat on Monday, where your “innie” and “outie” are not at war with each other, and where you offer every part of your life in worship.
In the end, Jesus does not sever your heart. He sews it back together.
