The Battle Between Busyness and Being at God's Feet

Hi CEOs! I'm trying something new for our first November blog--an audio message! Grant me grace as you listen; it's my something new I was led to do for us. I'm excited to see how this will add another layer to our work and impact together. Just in case you're a hard core text only blog lover, I've included the transcript below as well. ;-)

Click below to listen and scroll below to read along.

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Hi CEOs. It's Dr. Lorin Carter, The Corporate Consultant, and this week I'm sharing our update via audio message. And I want to talk to you about choosing the better thing.

Do you remember the Bible story with Mary and Martha?

Here's a quick reminder of the story found in Luke 10:38-42 KJV:

38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Jesus had come, He is there, and He’s sharing The Gospel. He's sharing, just imparting wisdom to The Disciples and all who have gathered. And the Bible says Martha is cumbered about with much doing. Like she's busy, being a great host, moving here, moving there, making sure food's covered, cleaning up, checking what's going on in the kitchen, making sure everybody's comfortable. Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Martha comes out and is like, “Jesus, do you see my sister? You see how she just lift me to do all the work? And she's just sitting in here and I have to do it all by myself? Tell her to come help me.”

Jesus says to her, “Martha, you're worried about the wrong thing…You're busy with all of these things that come with hosting. You're busy with life. But Mary has chosen to slow down and take in what's most important. She's learning from me. She's hearing from me. She's inviting stillness into her life. She's prioritizing her life. Instead of letting busyness and what looks good be what drives her, she's allowing what is most beneficial to be her priority.”

I was reminded of that story last month. All year, I have been planning to go to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Summit in DC at the end of the month with my cohort. We've talked about it, we've booked hotels, we've registered, we've talked about what we'll do when we get there, coordinating schedules.

And less than a month before* that event. I got an invitation to attend the Prosperity Now conference. It's an economic development conference, and it is aligned, beautifulifully with the direction of our sister firm, C-Suite Equity Consulting. We've had to adjust our direction there due to all of the policy, programmatic, and funding changes this year so that we can continue to do great work, but it's caused us to make some deep pivots.

This opportunity literally came out of the blue. I did an accelerator with them at the beginning of the year, completed it, enjoyed it, and made some new connections; it was a great experience. About a month before the trip that I just knew I would be on in D.C. I get an email from Prosperity Now saying because you were a part of our prior cohort we have an opportunity to sponsor some of our cohort members to come to our annual conference in DC—but you have to apply. So put in your application and we’ll let you know.

I'm thinking, okay, I'll put this in. We'll see. You know, I must have seen this last minute. This is the first thing I've seen of it. Put in the application, maybe a Thursday or Friday, sometime over the weekend. By the next Monday or Tuesday, I got confirmation that I had been selected to receive the scholarship.

Now, one, I was very excited because it's like, man, y'all know how much conferences costs. They are not cheap. Not only was it an opportunity for me to attend, but also for Mario to attend. The way they handled the logistics was just beautiful.

I knew I was being presented with a choice. I had prayed for God to send new contacts, to put us in relationship with people that could help us continue to do the work that we do in community development, economic development, park development, and to move it forward without the political barriers that we had been running up against the last year or two. This was an ideal situation.

It was offering opportunities to learn about entrepreneurship, education, and housing development (which is a new project we just started last month with a client we're continuing with for another year), ways to improve your business, and guidance on building out your own frameworks to help solidify your business's position uniquely in the market.

It was an answered prayer—literally line after line of things that I had prayed about—when I looked at the details for this conference. I also knew I was going to have to make a choice; we would have to make a choice.

Would we attend the Prosperity Now conference, which was directly in line with the subststantive part of our work, or would attend the Goldman Sachs Conference, which was more geared around understanding policy updates around business, being able to build your network with other business owners, and speaking to elected officials about current conditions for small business owners.

I prayed about it and I said, “You know what? God, while I would love, absolutely love, to be in DC at the end of the month with my cohort. I know you have sent this as an answer to prayer.” So we decided to go to D.C. at the top of the month. The conference was the first weekend in October, versus the last weekend. So we went, had a wonderful time, met some amazing people, have meetings set up now to to help move our business forward, and find ways that we can support other attendees as we collaborate and continue to do community development across the country.

It was a decision where I had to say, will I allow God to interrupt my plans with His answer to my prayer? Will I be still enough to see what He is showing me in this answer? Will I give Him the permission to change my plans to redirect what I had and to answer my prayer in a different way?

Y'all down to the location, the hotel was even the same, and I just chuckled because sometimes we make plans and we say, you know, in our life, this is how we want things to go, or where we intend for them to move forward, and God can say, “Well, you had a good idea. You were kind of close, but not quite. Let me adjust it, and tweak it, and make sure that it is my absolute best for you in this season.”

Going to the conference I felt reinvigorated. I was encouraged. I was inspired. I was energized to continue our work, and I knew that it was the right choice. We even got to see TLC. That was a bonus And it was included in our ticket! I was like, okay, I'm not mad at that. Before they go on their final tour.

But just in all things, I think it was a reminder that life sometimes can come at us fast. And we're doing our best to manage it all. We're doing our best to prioritize. We're doing our best to make sure that the things that we believe are important are being managed well.

Then God will enter and remind us that sometimes we have to take a step back, reevaluate and look at the new opportunity that has presented itself. Slow down enough to embrace it, to value it, to take in all that it has to offer. Sometimes at the expense of our prior plans, but to know that it is okay, because when we choose what God has sent to us, we are choosing the greater thing and the better thing.

As you go into next week and you think about your decisions from this past week, where do you see life in business and your to-do list taking over or being in competition with an area or a direction where God may be calling you to come in, to slow down, to sit at his feet, and to accept the better thing?

How can you invite God in, give Him space, to show you what He has as his best for you this coming week?

I hope this encourages you to continue doing your best and to know that sometimes it's not the amount of things that we are doing, or the fury with which we accomplish our goals.

Sometimes it's in the slow, the stillness, the quiet reflection that allows God's space to give us a new direction and even to answer the prayers of our hearts. Invite Him in this week CEO. Give him space to disrupt your plans, give him space to answer your prayers in a way that exceeds your expectations, and give yourself the grace to change direction.

Know that it may come with some grief. There was definitely a bit of missing out that I felt, but it was not as deep as I anticipated, because I knew I had made the decision that God wanted me to. I knew going to the conference that I chose was in His Will.

I hope for you as well that if God leads you to make a different decision than the one you've planned, one that you've been looking forward to, one that you have built your year around, that you would give Him permission to surprise and delight you in the best ways.

All right. I'll talk to you all next week. Have a good one, y'all.

Thank you for your grace with my first go at an audio message. I hit play and went for it! I didn’t want to overthink it or over plan it. I really enjoyed this and will definitely use a more structured approach next time, but it feels good to let myself be a beginner again and try something new! 😉

*The email was received over a month before the initial event.

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A few quick announcements and updates:

Tomorrow is the final day for presale and pre-order copies of the Pray Plan Profit CEO Planner.

We've sold our first few copies, and I am so grateful for the CEOs that have invested in this resource, and are looking forward to how it can grow and support their businesses!

This was designed for you, and I cannot wait for you to get your hands on it to build your business with your own CEO Operating System.

Also, we are navigating the government shutdown and how it has impacted both the operations of the Library of Congress and the Copyright office. Those two offices have been closed, like many others in the government over the last almost 40 days.

We are not sure when they will reopen. I will keep you all updated on the progress of that. We are working with our publislisher on some workarounds. Know that it is on our radar. We are actively working to navigate this so that delivery dataates are not impacted.

Please pray with us, not just for the offices to open and for printing, you know, to come back. That is a concern, but even more so for our government that they would be reminded of who they were elected to serve, that people will not be used as pawns in politics, and that those who have been impacted will have every need supplied, and that this may be an opportunity that God uses to show His immense love for them.

Some of that love may come through us who are to be his hands and feet. So if you see a need, please do what you can. Sometimes it's just a kind word. We know things are tight for everyone and everyone's making adjustments. If you have abundance in this season, this is your opportunity to cover the lack of others.

Please, where you can show up, be open to God's direction, to give, to support, to help those who did not ask for this and who don't have the power themselves to change it. So let's be His hands and feet and show our community what God's love looks like in real time. All right, y'all. That's it for this week. I love you. Have a great week. Bye!

With Joy In Purpose,

Dr. Lorin R. Carter

The Corporate Consultant