What Is More Important Than Business?Choosing the Better Thing
So often at work, there is always more to do. More emails, more meetings, more opportunities, more fires to put out. The pressure to keep producing can be relentless.
But every once in a while, something forces us to step back and ask a deeper question:
In business… what is more important than business?
Recently, I came off a long, exhausting season of travel and made a firm commitment to myself: I’m not getting on another airplane for a while. But then I received a call—the wife of a lifelong friend letting me know he was sick and wanted to see me. My schedule said Don’t go. My boundaries said Don’t go. But in my spirit, I could feel it: This was the better thing.
Scripture says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” (Psalm 37:23 NLT). We plan, strategize, and build initiatives—but sometimes obedience requires a Godly pivot. A willingness to step out of the urgent and into the important.
Mary, Martha, and the Better Part
The story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10 is a business lesson disguised in a living room. Martha is busy “doing,” while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet—being. Martha didn’t choose something bad; she simply didn’t choose what was better.
Jesus told her:
“But few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
—Luke 10:42 NIV
Our culture—and especially business culture—celebrates the Marthas. The producers. The grinders. The ones who stay late and push hard. But Jesus celebrates the ones who can discern what’s needed most in the moment.
The Tension of Doing vs. Becoming
Business is full of doing, but God is far more interested in your becoming.
Who you’re becoming is shaped not only by what you produce, but by:
the priorities you choose,
the relationships you nurture,
the voices you listen to,
and the moments you refuse to rush past.
The danger is not simply overwork—it’s becoming so busy that your doing overshadows your becoming. You can hit every KPI and still miss your purpose. You can serve hundreds and still ignore the one God sent you to.
Jesus leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one—not because it’s efficient, but because it’s important.
The Real Assignment
In business, God isn’t moved by how much you produce.
He’s drawn to:
your obedience,
your sensitivity to His Spirit,
your willingness to pause and ask,
“Lord, what exactly did You come here for?”
That’s where clarity lives.
That’s where purpose is uncovered.
That’s where the noise stops and the assignment becomes visible.
Sometimes we are busy serving food God never ordered. Sometimes we are fighting battles He didn’t send us to fight. Sometimes we are winning at work but losing the very thing He asked us to protect.
Choosing the Better Thing
Maybe this is your reminder to realign.
To slow down long enough to hear God’s direction.
To let Him order your steps instead of letting busyness drive them.
To prioritize what is eternal over what is merely urgent.
In business—and in life—only a few things are truly needed.
Often, only one.
And like Mary, may you have the courage to choose what is better.