Neighbors for Neighbors

Do stuff with and for your neighbors

Peter Drucker, a famous management consultant of the eighties and nineties, was famous for asking two successive questions. "What's is our main business?" - and - "How's business?" These simple questions can have powerful impact if seriously applied to almost any arena of our lives. They can help us focus on what we need to be doing. They can also help us to pay attention to the results of our efforts.

Though these questions could be applied to almost any area of our lives (work, relationships, etc.), let's look at our spiritual lives. What is your spiritual life business? What are you trying to accomplish in your spiritual life? Do you take this endeavor as seriously as you do your work or academics? Are you doing the spiritual work necessary to fulfill your spiritual purposes. How is your spiritual business doing?

The United States is a business culture. However, our greatest export is probably not a physical or business product. It seems that our most prevalent export is secularization. Our primary cultural impact on the planet seems to transform societies from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious (or "irreligious") values and secular institutions. Our export of secularization, compounded with a blatant avarice for money and sexual immorality, is why many nations - particularly religious nations - consider us to be an evil nation.

Rather than dwell on the validity of our secularizing impact on the world, let's consider our culture's secularizing impact on our own lives. We are constantly bombarded with messages that indicate we can meet our own needs apart from God. We are constantly tempted (advertised) to want more ... more money, more technology, more entertainment, more sex, more health and better abs. Yet, our main business is, "To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind soul and strength. And to love our neighbors like ourselves." (Mark 12:30)

Our main business is spiritual. We were created to love and enjoy God, and to enjoy Him loving and enjoying us. Yet, we live in a culture that is generally too busy for God. So, what are we to do? We need to take time to reflect on our main purposes. And, we need to intentionally swim upstream and live alert spiritual lives. "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Colossians 3:17)

Take a moment and consider your life? Would others be able to tell what your main business is? Are you living intentionally in response to your relationship with God? How's business?

Staying in business with you,
Pastor Tom
tgriffith@rolcboston.org

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Comment by Dave on September 30, 2010 at 8:01pm
You continue to ignore the grading rubric: Please use APA formatting for your citations. Each paper should include at least 5 scholarly references (no using Wikipedia or other references that may be left up to interpretation or are unattributable), and be sure to include a proper reference list.

-5 points for lack of APA formatting. -5 points for lack of scholarly references.

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