“She makes sure her dealings
are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night.” Proverbs 31:18
This passage needs to be totally extricated from the idea of financial gain/success as being a measure of
worth. Instead, I am going to apply this ideal to a journey with Jesus.
Any dealings with Jesus are
profitable: emotionally, spiritually, personally, socially. All the facets of relationship
cannot help but bear fruit when Jesus resides at the centre of our dealings,
our doings, our beings.
I have to add that for dealings
to be profitable, there is often a
lot of hard work involved. Relationships take work. Growth takes work. Work takes work. Practice takes work. Love
takes work even though the love of God is given freely. The work takes place at
our end to understand what this precious gift really means.
This applies to business as
well. In a day and age when business can be ruthless, when TV shows focus on
the contractor who takes the money and leaves a mess, a Christian business
person who lives through the teachings of Jesus will be successful. Honesty, trustworthiness,
professionalism, respect, stewardship, integrity, all the “old fashioned”
ideals offer an opportunity for us to infuse the love of Jesus into business
dealings. Making the choice to run a business with these ethics at their core
pours out an inestimable amount of worth onto the people being served. This is
especially important when we are being paid to do a job!
And these things apply to us as
customers as well. Manners, gratitude, patience, diligence, and many more of
the “old fashioned” ideals should be part of our conduct and ethic as believers.
Sometimes I do it right.
Sometimes I don’t. Even when I try to do it right!
Perhaps I need to remember that
everywhere I go, my lamp burns late into the night. Night not necessarily
meaning the time of day after the sun goes down.
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