I was talking to some businessmen tonight who faced messy situations in a business that had been run into the ground. It was losing money and had so many problems, its leaders had to take it into bankruptcy. Negative cash flow, unions airing grievances, bad marketing - on and on it went.

Their situation made me ask, what is the spiritual dimension of complex issues like this one?  We may find ourselves praying, "God, I am so overwhelmed here, what do I do?" And the larger question may be: What does God want us to do with our practical everyday problems? Do we live our iives subconsciously embracing a secular/sacred dichotomy?

No easy answers, but I come back to this truth: God gave you a brain - use it.  For example, I have a friend who owns a business. He uses the business as a platform to help people in a lot of ways. His business took a dive last year and he resurrected it using what he calls his "Ten S Filter."

1. Substantiate - look for the reality in a situation
2. Stress - create a sense of urgency
3. Sort - clarify by putting things into categories
4. Suss - evaluate and scope out opportunities
5. Speed - increase the velocity of your decision-making
6. Synchronicity - look for the way things fit together
7. Simplify - bureaucracies the world over need this
8. Streamline - find new efficiencies
9. Standardize - new many custom projects is costly
10. Sustain - put support structures in place

Here's the point: We can over-spiritualize our lives. My friend may not have a Bible verse for each principle, but still find God in the midst of his process. At college I learned "all truth is God's truth." In other words, if it's true, God is invested in it - an answer to my struggles may come packaged in surprising ways like the Ten S Filter, but that doesn't diminish its relevance.

What difficult situations or complex opportunities do you face? You may already have heard God about what to do and just not recognized his voice.