Weekday Wisdom, Episode 38

Do faith and business mix? That’s what we’re going to talk about in today’s Weekday Wisdom.

Today, I want to share a passage with you from this book called The Tap by Frank McKinney. I first came across Frank McKinney several years ago when I reviewed a children’s book he wrote, which is really a sweet, whimsical book. I wrote a review for it, which you can find on my The Genre Traveler website. Because of that review, I received a copy of this book.

It’s taken me a while to pick it up. But, my goodness is he a good writer! I will be reviewing this book officially on this Web site. However, I haven’t finished reading it yet, and I generally like read the whole book before I review it. (I’ve only made one exception to that rule!)

I was reading it yesterday and this one passage really caught me. For the last several years now, I’ve been really feeling called to do more with my faith, to bring it more into my business, and more into my life. But I haven’t quite figured out how to do that. What would that look like? There was something this passage he wrote that I really think kind of sums up what I feel like I’ve been called to do.

Now, it doesn’t matter what faith you are. That’s not my place or calling. I don’t care what faith you are. I’m Catholic. I was raised Catholic. For a while, in my twenties through forties, I wandered away from the church, never left it, but wandered away trying to find my spiritual home. I’ve always had a relationship with God — in fact, He probably thinks I’m a chatterbox (and He’d be right) because I talk to him so often. I believe having a relationship with the Divine is a really important human need. But for a while, I couldn’t quite find my home.

When I met my husband, he introduced me to his church. He is a Lutheran who has converted to being Catholic. The church he introduced me to is much more traditional than I grew up with. Much of the mass is in Latin. The music is performed by a live baroque ensemble. It’s absolutely beautiful. And, after I got used to the differences, I felt like, “Ah. This is what I was missing.”

Again, you don’t have to be Catholic, but you do need to have a relationship with the divine. And, that relationship needs to be a part of every aspect of your life. This is what Frank McKinney is talking about in the passage I share below. This comes from Chapter 12 – Doing the Opposite Attracts, in which he busts some myths. In this passage, he says the trap is “Faith and fortune don’t mix.” His solution? “Bring God into the boardroom.”

“Does political correctness dictate that we act as if God doesn’t exist in our nine-to-five? I don’t want to get into the whole debate about when and where and whether you should pray in public. But I do want to address the idea that you should (or could) separate your spiritual life from your professional life.

“Let me just lay it on the line: You can’t. I tried when I was younger, and it didn’t work. You can pretend your beliefs about God have no bearing on your workday or your business dealings…you can behave as if God matters only when you’re in a place of worship or your own home, but there’s a word for this: hypocrisy. Think of it as the spiritual equivalent of a split personality. It damns you to a kind of hell in the here and now. If you take a moment to reflect on what it really means to compartmentalize God, to stash your spirit away in a corner every day but Sunday, you realize that it leads you to only one conclusion: a fractured and even tortured sense of self. If you have a conscious, it eventually makes you feel guilty and empty and lost.”

I thought that passage was really particularly beautiful because it gets to the heart of what I’ve been feeling. And that is that you need to live your faith and your beliefs. You need to be in integrity with who you are at your deep, spiritual core.

Again, this is nondenominational. If you’re a Muslim, then you live your life as a Muslim. If you are Jewish, then you live your life as a Jew. If you are Catholic, you live your life as a Catholic. And so on.

This reminds me of the stories I’ve heard about … I can’t remember which gangster it was … but he’d go to church on a Sunday. He’d give all of this money to the church, and then his business he’d ruthlessly kill people. I’m sorry, but giving money to the church on Sunday doesn’t mean you can go kill someone the next day.

If you’ve read the article I wrote on the eight facets of life, the relationship with the Divine is one of them. And the thing is, you can think of all eight facets as separate and distinct compartments of your life in order to do a deep dive in each individual area, but honestly, you are a whole person. You are not a compartmentalized person. And so your spirituality needs to be reflected in everything you do.

Now that doesn’t mean that you necessarily go around preaching to people, unless, of course, that’s your calling. I mean, if you’re a preacher, then you should be preaching to people. No. What this means is you live in integrity with who you are. Your faith, your relationship with God, is an integral part of who you are.

I don’t go around preaching my Catholic beliefs to people. I live them. Occasionally, if you look back at some of these videos, you will notice that I’m wearing a cross. Where the two — faith and business — intermix is here: I won’t do something that my faith and my beliefs aren’t in alignment with. That’s the key: Being in alignment.

For example, and this may be somewhat controversial, I have been approached on several occasions to include on my websites (sometimes for pay) links or articles or even start a business involved with marijuana. I’m sorry, I just can’t. I am dead set against the legalization of marijuana. That stuff rots your brain, and I have friends to prove it. True, not everyone gets their brains damaged. However, marijuana is lipophilic. This means that it gets stored in lipids or fat. Guess what every cell membrane in your body is made of? Yep, lipids. If you smoked pot at one point in time, a sample of your hair can be tested a year later and show that you smoked pot a year ago. It damages brain cells. I will not support it.

That’s part of my values. If you want to support it, that’s on you.

Same with my faith. There are certain things that the Catholic faith believes in, that I just won’t go against. And, sometimes it’s controversial. I don’t necessarily talk about it, but I still live in integrity with myself and my faith.

I really do believe that there are many paths to God. I believe in a loving father, for the lack of a better term, who wants all of us to seek him out. For me, the Catholic faith fulfills this. But that may not be the case for your, and that’s fine. Either way, I live my life and I do my business in integrity with my faith.

That’s one reason why I really liked this book. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of The Tap by Frank McKinney. The tap is his term for God communicating with you. Yes, this is a very faith-filled book. However, I don’t believe you have to be Christian to understand McKinney’s points.

I challenge you to really look deep into who you are. What are your core beliefs? What are your beliefs in relation to your relationship with the divine? How do they inform how you do business? And how do they inform how you live your life?

Remember:
Don’t box yourself in.
Spread your wings and fly.
Because you — yes, you — are capable of more than you know.

If you liked this video, like it on YouTube. Comment below. And please, contact me and let me know what questions or topics you’d like me to cover in future videos. I really do want the Weekday Wisdom to be something that you value and look forward to watching. I can only do that if you talk to me. Let me know what you need. Let me know how I can help you.

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