Fancy meeting you here.
Super Casual and Business Attire are seated together at a crowded bar nursing a drink and swapping stories. The place is abuzz. A football game occupies the big screens. These guys have no team they support in the game of the week, and each is there alone. So, they kill time by satisfying the curiosity each feels about the other.
What brings you here? BA (Business Attire) asks SC (Super Casual).
Got a fishing tournament this weekend. A buddy is driving up in the morning. Cost a pretty penny to get into the tournament, but it’ll be a helluva good time. What about you? You don’t look like you’re here to fish.
BA smiles, perhaps a bit wistfully, Well, sort of. Not really. I guess you’d say I already did the fishing. I am here to reel him in. I am getting a new client to sign on the dotted line tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow’s Saturday, SC reminds his fellow patron of the Hotel of Dreams.
Yes, and all the suckers I am competing with think that means a day off. While they put their hooks in the water, I will be reeling in the fish they thought would wait until Monday.
Slightly stung, SC retorts, And while you are reeling in your big fish, the boys and me will be living the high life, whether we catch anything or not.
Everybody has a hungry heart.
BA and SC both think maybe that escalated rather quickly, so silence ensues. They each finish their drink and BA orders another round for himself and his counterpart.
SC thanks him and breaks the silence.
“You know,” he says, “There is more to life than making money.”
BA nods and considers that statement—one he has heard a few dozen times before, especially from his ex-wife—and finally answers.
“Yes,” he agrees. “But if you make enough money, there is more to life.”
Maybe that is a valid point, SC thinks. His wife was not terribly pleased that he had decided to spend so much money on a fishing trip when they were already financially strapped.
The two finally say goodbye, each wishing the other the best of luck, and off they go to their respective rooms, each to resume his chosen path.
SC finds himself envious of BA’s commitment to and passion for success in business, and the rewards that come with it. Wouldn’t he like to have less money stress, drive a newer truck, and provide a better home in a nicer neighborhood for his family?
Of course he would!
BA stares at the ceiling in his upgraded hotel room, thanks to his Platinum Plus rating with the hotel chain, which is itself another reason his wife is now his ex. Gone too much. Chasing the dream he swore was for her in the first place. Now she is gone, and the dream is something different. He envies the simplicity of SC’s life. Wouldn’t he love to be fishing this weekend with some buddies and without a care in the world?
Of course he would!
Everyone is a philosopher; most of us just suck at it.
Super Casual lives by the YOLO philosophy: You Only Live Once.
Business Attire’s favorite office plaque reads, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
Each believes his way is right, and yet each envies the benefits of the other’s approach.
Meanwhile, another fellow, BC (Business Casual), is at the same hotel, but he was in the restaurant adjacent to the bar, dining with his family. They were headed for Disneyland. Like BA, BC has managed to nurture a successful career. Unlike either BA or SC, BC also enjoys a healthy marriage. He invests in stocks when they make sense. He invests in his family because that always makes the most sense to him. He works hard when he works. And he doesn’t work when he plays.
BC gives his family his full attention and the full benefits of a life earned by a lifetime of commitment to excellence.
What it says in the Bible, though…
One could find a biblical basis for each approach.
BA could recite verses like [1]Ecclesiastes 9:10, which reads, Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
SC could counter with the foolish rich man and God’s words to him just before he died: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’” – Luke 12:20.
The moral to this story is this: life is about balance. You can have everything you ever wanted and die wanting. Conversely, you can live your best life and die knowing you really didn’t. Or you can strike a balance. You can outwork the competition and still take the time—make the time—to teach that kid who bears your likeness and your name all about competition, commitment… and love.
Don’t wake up one day when it is too late and think, I could have been a BC.
[3]Rest in God alone, O my soul,
for my hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
He is my fortress; I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor rest on God, my strong rock;
my refuge is in God.
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts before Him.
God is our refuge.
Selah
Lowborn men are but a vapor,
the exalted but a lie.
Weighed on the scale, they go up;
together they are but a vapor.
Place no trust in extortion,
or false hope in stolen goods.
If your riches increase,
do not set your heart upon them.
God has spoken once;
I have heard this twice:
that power belongs to God,
and loving devotion to You, O Lord.
-Psalm 62:5-11
footnotes[1] New Living Translation of the Holy Bible
[2] sic
[3] Berean Study Bible