Faith4Business

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

—John 12:24-25

Every day is a race.  It is a race from the bed to the shower in an effort trying to be out the door to and on the turnpike before the witching hour of 6:00 am.  Ten minutes after the hour and the airport goes from a comfortable 45-minute ride to a 2-hour stop and go dredge.  Two days later rushing to catch a flight to get back for my son's baseball game or my daughter's softball game.  Rushing, from a lunch appointment to be back in my office for an afternoon meeting.  It never ends...  Life is no longer ground hog day, its ground hog year.  Days repeat into months, months into years.  The details of the repeating patterns are different but in some ways it is all very eerily the same. 

Rushing.... Rushing to what?  Trying to negotiate the corporate ladder and the endless pursue of building personal assets.  And, in recent years only to watch helplessly as most of it has evaporated before our eyes. 

I am one of many, and in a sad way there is comfort in knowing I am not alone.  When I arrive at the terminal I sink into the sea of business travelers. I roll my black Tumi bag into the river of people that look and dress like me. There are thousands, no, millions of others all rushing to our respective gates hoping for an upgrade on the next segment to improve the day.  It is easy and tempting to be melon collie when considering the folly of our dance.  But in taking an account of the life we have built or found ourselves in I have to ask...

“Why is it that I am surprised when the end of the day is reached that my heart is not fulfilled?”   

After all, wasn’t all of this born in selfish pursuit?  Yes, we dress it up in the clothes of responsibilities, obligations and duties.  These are merely ideologies that keep us going.  In reality, who among us aspired for the corner office because we wanted to feed children in Africa or serve our fellow man?  No, I began this race years ago dreaming of Porsches, Ferrari's and a house fit for an NBA superstar.  There was a day, which I am now ashamed of, that I thought the poor where somehow to blame for their plight.  Not so today... and even if they are who cares?  They are in need... I am in a position to help... so I should. Let judgment be between them and God. 

The selfish pursuit of prosperity will always be a road that never ends.  I suspect this is a universal truth for most but for some the realization of it may be more apparent than for others.  The bottom line… the pursuit of profit and gain is not necessarily evil or bad, especially if it is not a cost or harm to others. 

However, cost there may still be… you may wake up one day, as have I, to find that wealth and “Things” are not the nirvana you once thought it was. 

Ground hog day for me always begins with this simple and sincere prayer…

“God, please help me just get through this day.  Serving your Will and not my own.”  On a good day I like to think that somehow as I jockey my rat that this actually happens. Somehow?  And, at the end of the day I close with even a simpler and sincerer prayer to God…

“Thank You.”