Your Business and My Business

The great theologian Hank Williams, Jr. once recorded a song entitled, “Mind Your Own Business.” The chorus of that song said, “Mind your own business and you won’t be minding mine.”

When someone would ask my mother a question about something that she thought was of no concern to them she would say, “That’s meola to catch meddlers.” That was my mother’s way of saying “It is none of your business.”

There are things in life that are private; there are things in life that are no one’s business but our own. There are times that people need to mind their own business.

I am sure many of us have been frustrated and angered in our lives when persons have, to use the vernacular, “stuck their nose where it didn’t belong,” when it has come to our personal affairs. Granted there are judgmental people in our world that oftentimes interfere in the affairs of others.

There are even well meaning people who give unsolicited advice about our lives, our decisions and our relationships. All too often even the most well intentioned person can speak without having all of the facts and make uninformed comments.

Jesus taught that we should be diligent in managing our own affairs before we delve into the affairs of others when he said, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5 NRSV)

I suppose that another way of saying what Jesus is said is to say, “If you are minding your own business the right way then you have little to time to tend to the affairs of others.”

So it is that all of us should be concerned with our own business. However, we have to come to an understanding that there is very little in our lives that is our own business. The truth is that none of us live in total independence. Most every decision that we make has some impact on people other than ourselves.

The decisions and choices that I make in my life have an impact on not only me, but my wife and my daughter. Indeed the decisions and choices that I make have an impact on lives far beyond my immediate household. While I certainly would like to simply mind my own business the truth is that much of my business is other folk’s business because my life impacts their life. Conversely there are times that other folk’s business has an impact on me.

Often times we hear people say, “I have to do what is best for me.” There is truth in that remark in some ways. However, we have to acknowledge that there are times that “what is best for me” can have a negative impact on the life of others.

The Bible reminds us that we are to consider the impact on others when we make our life choices.

In the eighth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul, in a discussion of an issue facing the first century church, explains that our actions can have negative consequences in the lives of others even if they seem perfectly appropriate to us and for us. He reminds us that as people of faith we not be a stumbling block for others.

Therefore, there are times that your business is my business and my business is your business. The problem is that in life our “want to” often is in conflict with our “ought to.” When our “want to” also becomes our “ought to” maybe then we can all simply mind our own business.