No good deed goes unpunished?
Good work habits include being persistent and working efficiently. To get results in a timely manner, we've got to know our objective, put our efforts into the proper task at hand and not give up until we achieve our goal.
The world of work should reflect our interior life - that world inside us where the real work of sanctification of our soul goes on day and night. We don't talk much about the interior life anymore, but it's critical to achieving our ultimate goal: growing closer to God.
While we put out our best efforts on the job, being persistent and working efficiently, we should be putting out our best efforts in our interior life as well. Those efforts consist of our prayer and study, our attending Mass and visiting the Blessed Sacrament whenever possible, our meditation (a few minutes per day) - all those "norms of piety" that we practice for the sake of our souls.
But let's not forget the example we give to others - even on the job.
While the workplace may not always be conducive to our norms of piety (we kind of squeeze in prayer or thoughts of God when we can - if we do it at all), it can always be conducive to our giving good example to others.
Of course, we mostly won't even know that our good example was a help to another soul. But that's no reason for us to back off one iota in our persistence and our efficiency in working in such a way that our example helps to lift others up and bring them closer to God.
Every word we say, every action we take, is noticed by someone in some way. Our example, for better or worse, ripples out and touches another soul. So our example really becomes critical to many others in their efforts (conscious or unconscious) to grow closer to God. And in those moments when we think no one really notices, we can remind ourselves that no effort, no prayer, no sacrifice done for the love of Christ is ever wasted.
Even if the person right before us doesn't seem to notice or care about the good example we're trying to give, Our Lord will never let our efforts go to waste. Someone, somewhere will receive the benefit of our efforts. Maybe even that very person who seems not to notice right now.
The fact is God is present everywhere to every soul - even the ones who don't believe in Him or seem to make no effort to know Him. If we're close to God, we're close to them. He will never let any good deed or our best efforts go to waste.
The world of work should reflect our interior life - that world inside us where the real work of sanctification of our soul goes on day and night. We don't talk much about the interior life anymore, but it's critical to achieving our ultimate goal: growing closer to God.
While we put out our best efforts on the job, being persistent and working efficiently, we should be putting out our best efforts in our interior life as well. Those efforts consist of our prayer and study, our attending Mass and visiting the Blessed Sacrament whenever possible, our meditation (a few minutes per day) - all those "norms of piety" that we practice for the sake of our souls.
But let's not forget the example we give to others - even on the job.
While the workplace may not always be conducive to our norms of piety (we kind of squeeze in prayer or thoughts of God when we can - if we do it at all), it can always be conducive to our giving good example to others.
Of course, we mostly won't even know that our good example was a help to another soul. But that's no reason for us to back off one iota in our persistence and our efficiency in working in such a way that our example helps to lift others up and bring them closer to God.
Every word we say, every action we take, is noticed by someone in some way. Our example, for better or worse, ripples out and touches another soul. So our example really becomes critical to many others in their efforts (conscious or unconscious) to grow closer to God. And in those moments when we think no one really notices, we can remind ourselves that no effort, no prayer, no sacrifice done for the love of Christ is ever wasted.
Even if the person right before us doesn't seem to notice or care about the good example we're trying to give, Our Lord will never let our efforts go to waste. Someone, somewhere will receive the benefit of our efforts. Maybe even that very person who seems not to notice right now.
The fact is God is present everywhere to every soul - even the ones who don't believe in Him or seem to make no effort to know Him. If we're close to God, we're close to them. He will never let any good deed or our best efforts go to waste.
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