Business.

A while ago, and I can’t remember whether I read it or was talking to someone about it, but a concept starting expanding in my mind that just recently came back to my memory, and seems to me to be applicable to my life right now.

But first, let me give you a little back story.

In the last year I:

A.      Left my job

B.      Worried because I just left my job

C.       Travelled

D.      Moved

E.      Travelled

F.       Worried that I was travelling too much

G.      Spent a summer doing youth ministry that involved travelling

H.      Worried about what life was going to be like when I stopped travelling

I.        Started my own company

J.        Travelled

K.      Stopped travelling and found out what life was like when I stopped travelling

L.       Worried about owning my own company

M.     Lived life, mostly stationary, with little bits of travel, worry, and work mixed in for good measure

Ok, so that’s not the only things I did last year. Just most of them.

As I got thinking about this last year, I thought about all of that worry—you know, the worry in between the travelling and the travelling?

This worry. What is worry? Isn’t it being obsessive, typically, about things that we have no control over? Sure, there might be aspects to it that we need to take action about, but mostly I think it happens solely in our minds.

And our minds are what shape everything about our life.

What was I worrying about, I thought, if it was mainly things I had no control over?
Then that concept I talked about came back to mind.
Whoever it was I was listening to/reading was saying something about how at this point in their life they have had to say no to a lot of things.
No to activities, groups, projects, even some relationships. Why? Because at this time in her life those things were not her business. She had other duties, God-given things (husband, kids, her work, etc.) that were her business; and about THOSE things she needed to attend. Not all of the other stuff banging on the door.

As I was remembering this, I thought, “How many things do I spend mental energy on contemplating things which, probably and honestly, are not even my business right now? How much of my life is changed or how much of my mood is disturbed by thoughts of things that should not even have place in my life right now?”

Do you know what I mean?

I think sometimes we devote a lot of our lives, thoughts, energies to “business” which God has not given us for this season. When we could/should be out concerning ourselves with and experiencing the things that we have been told/given to concern ourselves with, we focus on that which is not ours, cheapening our experience of that which is because we are not solely involved in our present business.

I suppose this is my most recent tangent at taking every thought, every element of my life and making it obedient to Christ (II Cor. 10:5).

Needless to say, I have been trying to pinpoint which things I am involving myself in that I have no business involving myself in so that I can chuck it out the window, or just refuse to think about. Some things, I know, will require me to literally reject the thought at the door of my brain and say, “You are not my business. I refuse to give you time.”

Maybe it’s harsh, but it reminds me of something I was once told as I was exhausting my resources to accomplish things which, now looking back, I know I had no business accomplishing. “B, not every need is a call. Always remember that. You cannot heal all of the world’s wounds.”

Think about it, Wolfies. Make sure that every business you have your hand in is a business that Jesus has asked you to be a part of.

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On another note, I just have to tell you all that my dad fixed my car tonight. He is tonight’s “Hallelujah”

I know, I know. It doesn’t sound so grand.

But imagine that you are me. And you are without a car that will start. In the way less than freezing cold dead of winter. In the middle of nowhere. And you have places you need to be. With people counting on you.

Yeah, now that you understand the gravity of the situation you know why I am telling you this.
And I think in honor of my dad being my hero and fixing the car of his not-quite-helpless-but-almost-when-it-comes-to-cars daughter, if you have a dad in your life, be it your dad, your friends’ dad, your children’s dad, your grandchildren’s dad, whoever! If you know a dad, go tell them to keep up the good work, fight the good fight, and always keep loving their kids and fixing all of those cars. Because what they do is rare, and it is necessary.
And if you don’t have any dads in your life then thank our Heavenly Father, just for being who he is.

I love this picture of my dad. Him being all fun and shooting nerf balls out of the tail end of a beaver at some unsuspecting (no doubt) innocent passerby. Ok, probably not innocent passerby. Probably one of my brothers.