Are You Truly Handling Your Business?

Handle your business… what exactly does that mean?

Does it mean simply being busy? If it just means being busy, then every human being on the planet is, in essence, handling their business. But I believe it means more than activity for activity’s sake. If you’re very busy with tasks that advance your life and career by 10% while delaying the tasks that would move you forward by 80%, can you truly say you’re handling your business?

What if you’re prioritizing tasks that grow your bank account but downgrade the quality of your family life and jeopardize your children’s future by increasing the likelihood of divorce? Can you still say you’re handling your business? Maybe your work–home balance looks good on paper, but you’ve lost your soul-self—your spiritual center—and often feel like nothing makes you whole. In that case, are you truly handling your business?

I’ve often found that life is a three-legged stool, and one- or two-legged victories are, in essence, victorious failures. You can’t sit on a two-legged stool, and your life can’t take foundation on a two-legged victory. The three legs are money, family, and soul-self (spiritual identity).

I’m not trying to go deep into spirituality here, but those who gain great wealth and family success at the cost of their souls—where “Sunday time” never includes worship, prayer, or family meditation—often feel less full. By the same token, if the family goes to church every Sunday but that’s the primary time you spend together, then that too is a loss.

The three-legged stool of life needs Jesus prioritized, family prioritized, and enough income to avoid hardship. First-world cultures easily fall into the trap of making the income leg far more important. As I’ve mentioned before, to make anything in life more important is—instantly and often without noticing—to make something else less important. This is food for thought when setting your priorities. Everything you raise in importance becomes a multiplier that devalues something else, because you cannot raise one issue without raising it above others. To elevate your career unchecked is to devalue family and soul-self.

Doing this for a short season—days or weeks—may not collapse the stool, but prolonged imbalance creates lasting problems. How long can God and family simmer on the back burner before the pilot flame goes out and the warmth of those relationships is gone? Consider your priorities today and decide whether a reprioritization needs to take place.

Bible Reference

Mark 8:36 (NIV) — “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”