In today’s world, economics and business drive much of what is happening in our daily lives. Numbers and cost-benefit ratios drive a lot of decisions made in economics and business. Efficiency and productivity are the the mantra of many economists and businessmen today. Profit is the god before whom they worship.
Yet, there are many things that do not compute and do not make sense economically nor business-wise. People in love do not count the cost when they decide to get married. Oh, there may be a few who do and their marriage is off on the wrong footing. Parents do not usually do a cost-benefit analysis when they decide to have children. There may be a few who do and I have only pity for children raised by such parents.
I am not productive anymore in the economic sense. I am helping in the raising of my grandchildren. It is not a job but truly a work of love and I draw no salary. But what I am doing is no less important than when I was running a big corporation. The joys I now enjoy are deeper and less fleeting than when I was winning market share for the companies I had worked for.
I love reading through the last words of Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper. I can feel the love he had for them and the intimate connection he had with the Father. I can feel the warmth and glow of his feelings for them and how he was willing to lay down his life for them. Such are the joys and fulfillment I am now enjoying seeing and being with Jonathan and Jane as they are growing up. I gladly give up my time for them – just to play, read them stories, drive them around and just waste this time with and on them. Hours that used to command hundreds of dollars in the labor market. In the process, I get back big embraces, warm kisses and tender words of love and endearment – often at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected situations and places. Priceless!
I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.’
John 17:11-19