‘Tis The Season To Get Distracted
Our Mission
To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.
Luke 16.13 observes, no one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. The Bible has many warnings against the pursuit and accumulation of wealth. It is interesting that God observes that our greatest competitor to Him will not be some strange idol from a weird man-made religion but a desire to be wealthy. Why do we want wealth?
Because it represents opportunities for pleasure and comfort. It means the best houses, food, transportation and vacations. Wealth means getting to have all that we want and getting to do all that we want. Pursuing wealth is pursuing the self-centered life. While we often focus on the wealth accumulation side of God’s warning, the greater issue is failure to take action upon our true purpose for being created. That is, we are made by God for God to serve God as worshipers of God. We cannot serve God well if we are enslaved to the pursuit of wealth.
Rather than focusing upon how wealthy we are we should be focusing upon how well we are serving God. How well are we doing? What have we done for Him lately? God invites us to be rich in good deeds for these are what He rewards for all eternity when we spend all eternity with Him and those whom He has adopted. Serving God is not difficult but it does take focus, thought and intention.
We serve God everytime we clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty. We serve God everytime we welcome a child into God’s world. That is every time we let children know they are valued and loved by God and we help them understand Him as the Creator of all Who has provided every good thing for their benefit.
We serve God when we care for the sick, the elderly and the disabled. We serve God when we help people understand that He is and that He rewards those who place their faith in Him. We serve God when we sacrifice our own time, talent or treasure for the welfare and benefit of another human being. How well are we doing at serving God?
Is God to Whom we will give an account for how we lived our lives accumulating enough evidence against us to convict us as His servant? Have we spent our best days on accumulating wealth so that someday we can do the things God wants? Will we then serve Him? How do we know we are guaranteed those ‘somedays?’ Life is really about loving God by loving people with whatever time, talent and treasure we have today. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
We are to make pursuing God and His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven our greatest concern.
His Opportunities
- Thursday December 15th, CBMC will be presenting their annual get to know God better seminar. Details and Registration can be found HERE but don’t miss this opportunity to receive a plan for growing in your relationship with Jesus Christ in 2017.
Support CBMC
MONDAY MANNA
A service to the business community
A Publication of CBMC International
December 5, 2016
‘Tis The Season To Get Distracted
by Robert J. Tamasy
As each calendar begins drawing to a close, we often find a curious paradox. On one hand our desire is to focus these final weeks on attaining annual goals, quotas and deadlines. At the same time, with the many holiday festivities getting underway as seasonal holidays approach, it becomes very easy to lose our concentration on the tasks that need to be done. We could call this “the season of distraction.”
With this in mind, I came across a fitting quote from Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, software engineers, consultants and co-authors of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. They observed, “There are a million ways to lose a day of work, but not even a single way to get one back.”
What they say is true. Time continually moves forward, and when a minute, an hour, or a day has passed, there is no reclaiming it. It is similar to trying to put toothpaste back into the tube after we have squeezed it out. It may be human nature to want to hit the “Pause” button at the end of a busy and demanding year. We have worked hard and feel we deserve a chance to catch our breath. At the same time, opportunities that present themselves in these last weeks of the year might not be there after the New Year.
So we confront the need for balance: Celebrating the fact we have survived another year, with its successes, failures and challenges. But also recognizing there is work that remains to be done. As the Latin adage states, “Tempus fugit.” Time flies.
The Bible speaks to the importance of seeing ourselves as stewards of the time and opportunities being afforded to us. For instance, Ephesians 5:16 talks about “redeeming the time (making the most of every opportunity), because the days are evil.” This passage admonishes us to be wise in how we invest our time each day, not squandering it foolishly on empty, meaningless or unprofitable pursuits.
For those that profess to be followers of Jesus Christ in the workplace, Colossians 4:5 says we are to, “Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.” A different translation also tells us to “make the most of every opportunity.” Perhaps this is especially importance in the midst of the Christmas season, when the emphasis seems on everything except the true reason for the season, celebrating the birth of Jesus.
With all the frenetic activity surrounding the conclusion of the business calendar, on wrapping up projects and closing sales, along with the planning of holiday parties and buying gifts, are we serving as effective “marketplace ambassadors for Christ”? Is the presence and power of Jesus Christ being displayed in us despite the stresses and pressures of this season of the year? Here is another look at one of the passages above:
Speak and act with wisdom. This time of year could be the ideal time of all for exhibiting and explaining what our faith means to us – and what it could mean for others. “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone”(Colossians 4:3-6).
© 2016. Robert J. Tamasy is vice president of communications for Leaders Legacy, Inc., a non-profit based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. Bob has written Business At Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Today’s Workplace; and coauthored with David A. Stoddard, The Heart of Mentoring. His biweekly blog is: www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com.
Click here for the PDF:
