If you were asked, “What business are you in?” – how would you answer? The word business has come to mean different things. For example, the answer to the above question might produce specific, vague, or even sarcastic responses:
“I’m a kindergarten teacher at Harrah Elementary.”
“I’m an entrepreneur.”
“It’s none of your business!”
However, by our baptism we are entering into the family business of our Heavenly Father. We are assured an apprenticeship with the Holy Spirit who is with us to guide and instruct us. The “business” of course, is the way we live our lives. We are to live in such a way as to reflect God’s love in all we say and do.
It can be difficult in life with so much going on; sometimes busyness supersedes our true business. We become so busy that we’re not taking time to care for one another. Or we’re so focused on achieving our personal goals that we fail to see the needs in the world around us. Of course there is nothing wrong with being busy or setting goals, but we need to make sure that our focus on ourselves doesn’t get in the way of noticing all that is happening around us.
Each year I read A Christmas Carol, I find the story re-centers my focus on what truly is my business. It reminds me that there are times that I get so wrapped up in “me” that I lose sight of the most important things in life. My favorite passage from the book comes from the exchange between Jacob Marley’s spirit and Scrooge.
Marley pours out his sadness over the years he wasted while he was alive, never stopping to care for those in need. Scrooge, feeling uncomfortable, responds, “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob” to which Marley replies with my favorite lines in the entire book:
“Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
If you ever wanted to know what you were created for – read that passage. If you ever want to know the plan of God for your life – read that passage. If you ever want to know what Christmas is about – read that passage. Christ came into the world to shine light on the way we’re called to live life. Jesus was born to show us how to be the people we were created to be -to help us understand that we were born to be part of the family business.
Rev. Wendy Lambert, Senior Executive Pastor
