■ Relational joy with the Lord and others

■ investing in the health of our mind, body and soul

■ Intentionally developing our organization and market presence

■ Time for deep reflection and creative thought

  Indeed, if we travel through life with very little ‘margin,’ we’ll soon be overloaded with the many small, reactionary crises that naturally sprout from such habits.

 This modern sickness has become a ‘badge of courage’ for many! Proud of our ability to ‘keep all the plates spinning’ in such a breathless lifestyle, we often live like hamsters on a wheel! Many actually strive to live this way. Today’s mythical ‘super woman’ is one example of such thinking. You know the celebrated image: topflight executive, spouse, gourmet homemaker, and soccer mom, and church/community volunteer. While a few among us may be so supremely organized as to be able to pull-off such an expansive multi-tasking assignment, most either ‘crash and burn’ or severely neglect vital priorities in order to pursue such an idealized existence.

 Instead, we need a godly perspective on our priorities during this short life in the flesh if we’re to restore the balance needed to regain our emotional, spiritual, physical, financial, and time reserves in an ever-quickening digital age.  Our families, businesses, testimony, and eternal legacy depend on it!

  “Lord, teach me so to conceive time as an unrepeatable gift that I might live my life serenely with Your values in mind so that my life is lived to the full.”

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste lead to poverty” Pr 21:5

“…if it is leadership, let him govern diligently” Ro 12:8

What does diligence look like in our lives?

• With God: giving Him the devotion inherent in our relationship… and nothing less.
• With our spouses and families: fulfilling the role in their lives for which we have responsibility before God… and nothing less.
• Stewardship of the company He gives us to operate for Him: providing to it, and those we serve through it, all He asks of us… and nothing less.
• Service to His church: doing all He has gifted and called us to do… and nothing less.

Although it’s tempting to feel overwhelmed by this assignment, remember that diligence means doing what’s expected, not perfection or doing more than what’s expected! Let this thought sink in for a moment. Yes, there are many apparently conflicting demands on our time. We feel pressed on all sides, but there is an answer for every pressure… diligence, that which is expected by God and nothing more. Does this seem too simple, to just do what God asks in each area of our life? Our adversary would certainly like for us to think so. The truth, however, is that simple.

It’s the application that trips us up! This confusion is fueled by a culture that embraces ungodly values. We too often view the investment of our time in terms of how desired returns measure up to the expectations and standards of the world. This sets up a conflict between flesh and Spirit. The flesh, since it can’t survive this life, focuses all its demands and attention on the material world. The Spirit, since it transcends this life, urges focus on eternal things. We live amidst this constant conflict. Life is a battle zone where the war is fought largely through our choices regarding the use of time!

Considering Our Battle Zones

Getting back to our companies and their unique role in our lives, what does God expect of us? The answer of course is “whatever diligence requires”… nothing more, nothing less. “Well,” you might ask, “how does God define diligence for me?” The answer lies in your application of God’s Living Word and what He has revealed to you through prayer, circumstances, and His children. Try this working definition:

Diligence is what we can give to our business after more important priorities are fully serviced and lesser priorities are provided for.

Remember, diligence is also no more than that! To illustrate, let’s assume that God defines vocational diligence for you as normally requiring 45 hours per week. This is the amount of time He requires for you to provide to the business all He asks of you. Since He is the true Owner and Source, He has that right and the responsibility for whatever results flow out of His direction.

Let’s assume, in contrast, that you’re currently spending 90 hours per week on-the-job. What return do you suppose you’re earning for the extra 45 hours? The accurate answer is “nothing”! In fact, there’s a net eternal loss since, in order to work the extra 45 hours, you’ve taken them from other priorities. This is true in spite of the fact that you may appear to be profiting financially from the extra work. Financial profit isn’t the sole measure and, even if it were, we can’t know the results of the untaken alternative path. If we never retrench and delegate more fully to our staff, we’ll never know what might have happened. We can only wonder. Too often, the comfort of our longstanding habits – healthy or not – prevails.

Three recent C12 peer examples are worth mentioning. Each leader testifies that, in spite of reducing the hours spent in their businesses by more than 25% – one due to debilitating illness and two simply by choice – their income stayed the same or grew. What do you imagine they thought in advance of making their decision? What would you think? It’s natural for us to expect it to go the other way! But God and His ways are supernatural!

These tumultuous days may be the greatest season of our lives… the most fruitful that we have ever known! It will all depend on how we perceive them. It’s been said that “The circumstances of life don’t make me who I am; they reveal whose I am.” Light always shines brightest in darkness. This is our time! Brothers and sisters, we were created for this day!

Am I just ‘whistling through the graveyard’ or is this for real? Let’s talk about it.

Considering our Reality

If God has a plan for our lives – and He surely does – and if He will judge our performance versus that plan – and He surely will – then, if He is a just God, He must provide all we need to do what He asks. God is perfectly just (Dt 32:4, Dan 4:37, 1Jn 1:9)! Therefore, we’ll never lack His perfect provision to do what He asks. He is never limited by worldly measures or circumstances. Remember, He is the One who fed over three million people for forty years in the middle of a desert! He didn’t need food stamps, businesses, or anything outside of Himself to accomplish this. He is the sovereign and omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. He is never limited from doing anything. As His children and joint heirs in Jesus, with daily access to the throne, neither are we! Our only prerequisite is that we’re to be doing what He asks or, saying it another way, walking in His will for our lives.

We do have a problem though. Our culture has been so leavened by the poison of the “prosperity gospel” that we‘ve come to believe that walking in God’s will, or doing what He asks, will lead to a life absent of difficulty or challenge. It’s amazing that in all of our personal experience or knowledge, in all of history, and in all of the Biblical record, not one person has ever achieved or experienced such a life. Think about that last statement for a moment. No one, godly or ungodly, escapes the trials and cycles of life. It is a fool’s errand, created in the depths of hell, to blindly pursue an unobtainable or unsustainable, non-Biblical life! So many are discouraged and disillusioned by chasing unrealistic expectations! God never promised us such a self-imagined utopia. He simply says that He will never leave or forsake us.

The knowledge that (1) our heavenly Father is a good God who always “works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Ro 8:28) and (2) there is no power on earth or in heaven that can stand against Him, is our foundation for living in and through the inevitable up and down cycles of life. Paul’s encouragement in Romans 8 actually follows a discussion of suffering! In amazing ways, suffering draws us closer to God as we learn, first-hand, that “we are more than conquerors” and that nothing in all creation can separate us from His love! Armed with this certainty, we’re able to experience joy and contentment in the midst of the chaos of life in the flesh and the rough and tumble marketplace! Nothing stays the same in our life experience. Struggle always follows triumph, and vice-versa. There’s no way to avoid the reality of our fallen world. The secret is to learn to live above it… in it, but not of it. This can happen only if we live our lives with a true eternal perspective while trusting in a good and sovereign God.

Now, think about this… God knew exactly the environment and circumstances we would face when He sent you and me to earth at this moment to be His Ambassadors! He chose us for this time! It’s no accident that you and I are where we are, doing what we do, just now. He placed us precisely here, in time and space, and planned for us to do things for Him in the midst of the circumstances we find ourselves in right now!! And we’ll always have all we need to do all He wants!

   Throughout Proverbs there are many themes which are repeated for emphasis and presented in different ways to help us see their application more clearly. Examples of this repetition technique are seen in the warnings given across such disparate areas as: the folly of disobedience, sexual sin, rash speaking, laziness and the dangers of debt. The book breaks into 31 chapters, which makes it very suitable for a monthly ‘chapter-a-day’ study. In fact many believers have made it their practice to continuously read through the Proverbs this way for months or even years at a time, employing the repetition technique in their desire to hide these truths in their heart. When such a daily practice is undertaken for any sustained period of time Proverbs’ recurring themes become clear.

A Theme Intended to Get Our Attention

  One theme that is of particular interest to those of us called by God to lead businesses is the call to look for counsel. Counsel in this context means meaningful advice. The most cursory scan reveals more than 20 references to this topic within Proverbs. Here are just a handful:

“A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.” Pr 1:5

“Give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser still.” Pr 9:9

“Where there is no counsel the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.” Pr 11:14

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.” Pr 12:15

“Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards reproof will be honored.” Pr 13:18

“Without counsel plans go astray, but in the multitude of counselors there is victory.” Pr 15:22

“He who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment.” Pr 18:1

“For by wise counsel you will wage your own war; And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.” Pr. 24:6

  These are just a fraction of the many Biblical examples exhorting us to pursue counsel which we could cite. The clear emphasis of God’s Word in this particular area needs to be taken seriously and soberly. We truly disregard it at our own peril.

  The reason we need wise counsel is that it is so hard to know our own hearts. The Bible says it this way: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it”? (Jeremiah 17:9) The innate ability to deceive ourselves is resident in every one of us. As humans, self-justification comes as a part of the package. We are able to justify almost anything we want when we are left to our own devices. There is no doubt about it…we need help and protection in this area!

  Of course it isn’t only counsel per se that we need. We need Godly Counsel, God’s very truth and wisdom for application to our life. There are many possible sources of counsel but they are not all equally valuable. In fact, some counsel can be terribly harmful and, in fact, devastating to us. In our culture there are many, often attractive, sources of ungodly counsel. We may not realize it but the devil often works his distractions from God’s purpose for our lives through the suggestions or counsel of other people. Counsel that will be truly helpful to us and guide us into the things of God must originate in the heart of God. Many will speak to us, but not all are of God. It makes an enormous difference whom we seek out and listen to. Ideally, seek unity of response from a number of trustworthy Christ-centered advisors when dealing with important issues.