Time to re-evaluate, and it's not even New Year's!

Something has been happening that I just don't like. It's crept in over the past two months or so. We have become "business minded". And I'm not using that term positively but rather quite derogatorily. We are learning what it is as Christ-followers to open a business. And so far, I think we've already fallen into many of the traps that business owners become prey to and we're not doing too good a job of it. Opening the business has totally consumed us. Our life has become about how much coffee, candles, soap to order and which kind would sell the best, and how to get people in here, and making sure I put something on Facebook every day. Update the web site. About pricing, what to put on sale, how to market. Pricing it $20 or $19.99! Let's face it - in a little over one month of being open for business, we have become THOSE people. We have become sell-outs to trying whatever it takes to get somebody in the store to spend a buck. That is okay I guess for some people. But it's just not okay for me and I don't like where this could all head.

First of all, it was God who led us here to Cross Plains, to this little corner of the world, to live in and work in this house in this community, at this Crossroads of many Robertson County lives. And for me to think it was purely to make a buck would be the most horrible, shallow, selfish thing I can imagine. So I want it to stop before it even gets a chance to take root.

It is an odd thing - being a "Christian" business owner. In some ways, it feels like an oxymoron. I think God has allowed me to become consumed, so that he could see how empty it is. It's been a quiet week in terms of people coming in, but not in terms of the turmoil in my spirit. And I just want to get back to where I was with the Lord. That's the most important thing. With Perry and I both working our other jobs, as well as opening the store, that has sort of encouraged me to put God on the back burner to just simmer to himself while I take care of the bigger pots and put out fires.

So, how am I gonna do this so that it looks different? What is it God wants of me for his kingdom through this store? Because really that's all that matters. Seeking first His kingdom and his righteousness.

Perry and I spent a while praying about this just a bit ago. Praying over all the evil that has tried to invade our family - whether it's commercialism, selling out, illness, mechanical problems, an inordinate amount of flat tires, car wrecks, you name it. And I started to see, it is tiny little increments that the devil works his way into your life, and before you know it you are at complete unrest and he has tried to secure a foothold in every area of your life. So, not only did we pray to our Father, we also did some "talking" to the other side about vacating the property.

We want this business to not be a typical business. We want our focus to remain pure and true. We want to not be sell-outs to commercialism. We want to see every person that walks through this door in terms of eternity, not in terms of a sale. We want to say that God made a difference in peoples' lives at the corner of Hwy 25E and East Robertson. We pray for this to be a place of healing and peace to everyone who enters this property. That his presence would be what they sense. And if that is the only reason we are here, to be thankful that we have been chosen to minister in this way - what a privilege!

So pray for Perry and I, in that when we must do the daily things - the ordering, the placement, the pricing, the insurance and taxes, that we will be able through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to look different than any other "business". And we honestly have no idea what that even looks like - we just know what we know we don't want it to look like.