About the Business..........

        Some wise people have given us memorable sayings throughout history.  A great many of these have been passed down through time to help anyone who might happen to pay attention to their wisdom. We usually are better off when we pay attention to them.

          Today, we also pass down phrases to remind us of things that we enjoy or like.  You might recognize one of these:  “I’ll be back,”  “Inconceivable!”, and “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”  (Terminator, The Princess Bride, and The Wizard of Oz)   These phrases usually tie together faces, movies, and events that we once were exposed to and, at the moment, have some sort of meaning to us.

          Eventually, we all find ourselves quoting phrases of some sort or other.  Sometimes it is just because we know them and that they are fun to say.  One saying that I like to quote is, “Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies.”  This phrase happens to be from one of my favorite books and, believe me, I have no earthly idea why a preacher should be saying this…..but I still like to quote it….

          Recently, while I was praying over a subject to speak on, the Lord impressed on my mind a thought from scripture that keeps getting my attention every time I think about my own life.  It is found in the Book of Luke, chapter 2, in and around verse 49.

          Jesus happened to be twelve years old at the time and on a family trip to Jerusalem to attend the Passover festival that his family went to every year. After a few days the festival finally was over, and now it was time to go home.  As the story continues, we get the indication that Jesus was acting like a normal kid—probably horse-playing or doing something with his cousins, and as the whole group started traveling home, Mary and Joseph thought that Jesus was somewhere among all the relatives.  After a day’s travel, when they began to look for Jesus, it was discovered that he was missing.  As any loving parents would, Mary and Joseph turned around immediately and went back to Jerusalem.  Frantically searching, it took them another three days to find Him!  (Imagine the fear in a parent’s heart when their kid is missing for three days.  In verse 48 the word “anxiously” has the idea of “terror” in it.)

          After the scolding (yep, it’s there), Jesus said to His parents, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”  The meaning of the word “business” here is house, affairs, or things. A literal translation records it as “……busy about the affairs of my Father.”  Jesus said, in the first recorded conversation that we have of His life, that He had to be busy about the affairs of the Father, and this phrase evidently guided the rest of His life.  Everything else He did from then on involved being busy about the affairs of the Father.

          As God’s children, I believe that this is a shining example and pattern for us all to follow.  When Jesus gave the call to others of His day (and eventually us also), to follow Him, this was a part of that call: continually concerning ourselves with the things of the Father.

         

Now, get a full picture of what I am saying about this.

          When I go to work each day as an executive (or whatever else I am),  I should be purposefully about my Father’s business.  When I go to work each day as a manager of people, waitress at a restaurant, or a checkout clerk at Walmart, my mindset should be about the things of my Father.  You see, the Father has a plan how each of these professions can be used to bless us personally, further the Kingdom of God, and just generally be used by Him to carry the gospel to others in a very powerful way.

          Of course all of this is good, but now let’s allow our thoughts to go even farther.  How do you think that it would affect my spouse or my children if I approached them as part of my Father’s business for me to love and care for them?  How would it affect me also as I dealt with them from this mindset?

          And what about the things I look at on the computer or who I talk to on Facebook, Twitter, or my iPad?  How would these relationships be changed if I approached them as things of my Father?  Would my language change? My thoughts? Would my desires in life find changes in their order of priority?

          Jesus’ whole life was defined by this phrase:

          “I must be involved with the things concerning my Father.” 

I ask ever so kindly, what kind of phrase describes the life that you are living now?

And……..

What does that phrase say about you?