I find it’s worth my while from time to time to visit the way back machine in search of what I was thinking—what we were thinking and talking and writing about at InsideWork while we were exploring what we might contribute to the conversation about business spiritually engaged. I found this from July 2005…

In June, The Pew Research Center reported that only a third of Americans think the national economy is in good shape.

• Gas prices and the federal budget deficit are broadly perceived as significant problems for the U.S.
• Perceptions about local job availability are highly negative, despite recent improvements in the national employment picture — about half of those with annual incomes above $75,000 say jobs are scarce where they live.
• The availability of jobs and the instability of the stock market are the leading drivers of pessimism about the state of the economy.
• The percentage of Americans who rate their own financial situations positively declined from 51% to 44% in the first four months of 2005.
• One-in-four, including many middle-income earners, say they owe more in personal debt than they can afford.

At the time—before we knew a fraction of what we know now about how bad things could and would get, I wrote: “All this inevitably drives us to ask: Where can we look for security?”

Then as now, the manner in which Jesus answers that question is at once both sobering and full of hope:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
— Matthew 6:22-34

• The eye is the lamp of the body. What do you see when you look at the world? Would you say your worldview is more dominated by what’s right in front of you or more illuminated by the long view of biblical wisdom? Whatever your answer, what can you do in the next 28 days to refine your vision? If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.

• No one can serve two masters. What would people who know you best in business say about the master you serve? How do you know that? What do you make of the saying, “Whatever you can’t get enough of…that’s your god.”?

• Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? What keeps you up at night? Is it passion or panic? How easy do you find it to believe Jesus when he says, Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

• But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. What stories do your calendar, to-do list, email, correspondence, reading list and balance sheet tell about what you seek? What patterns do these documents reveal about your engagement with God’s kingdom and righteousness?

• Write yourself a letter about all this—or make it a prayer if you like.
• Share your reflections with someone who stands with you and for you in these matters. If you have no such person in your life, get that into your 28-day plan.
• If you want to dig deeper, check out Seeking the Kingdom in the Scriptural Roots of Commerce series.