What is the Profit?

Many of you who readthis daily devotion are business people. In the business world the pressure is on us to show a profit. I even feel that in the church. The pressure is on to show increase. Increase in attendance, increase in income, increase in outreach and ministry, and on an on it goes. In business you must show increase or profit in sales, in productivity, in efficiency, in the bottom line, and on and on it goes for you. As a parent you need to show increase in weight and growth when they are infants (we reach a point in life where profit is decrease), progress in activity from playing with their feet to crawling, to pulling up, to walking, to running, to riding a bicycle, to driving a car (that’s scary!). Then, as they grow increase in responsibility, in good grades (there’s the TAKS test you know), then finally, graduation. The point is that profit is a part of all our lives in some way. It looks different in every case but it is profit nonetheless.

We generally think of profit in some quantifiable form. It has to fit on a graph somehow, but here’s a different perspective on profit...

“Showing a profit means touching something and leaving it better than you found it.” —Jim Rohn

The Bible actually has some things to say about profit too...

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” Proverbs 14:23 (NIV)

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” Proverbs 21:5 (NIV)

Sometimes we get to intent on “counting beans” and forget the profit of our changed life and changing other lives. This story illustrates this struggle for us...

The young man was feeling very proud of himself. As a brand-new college graduate he had taken the C.P.A. Exams and passed with flying colors. Now he was a full-fledged Certified Public Accountant.

His father had been an immigrant to the U.S., & now owned his own little business. Filled with self-importance, the young man began to criticize his father’s way of keeping books. He said, “Dad, you don’t even know how much profit you’ve made. Over here in this drawer is your accounts receivable. Over there are your receipts, and you keep all your money in the cash register. You don’t have any idea how much you’ve made.”

The father answered, “Son, when I came to this country the only thing I owned was a pair of pants. Now, your brother is a doctor, your sister is an art teacher, and you are a C.P.A. Your mother and I own our home. We have a car, and we own this little business. Now add that up, subtract the pants, and all the rest is profit.”

I believe if we consistently touch people, business, products, an office environment, a neighborhood, a community, etc. it will produce profit in our lives. Profit in satisfaction and contentment of heart. Profit in calmer more serene homes and offices. Profit in safer, more productive communities. And, yes, more quantifiable produce in our lives, more money in the bank, more money flowing through our hands to bless others. It’s just a thought to chew on.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for touching me and leaving me better than You found me. Help me to carry that legacy into the world where I live and serve. Help me today and everyday to touch something, someone and leave it better than I found it.

Blessings!
Pastor Roger