How to Stop Spinnig Your Wheels
Spinning your wheels just kicks up a lot of hot air. Focus on your results. Still, lots of us do a lot of spinning.
At work, you meet people who are always "doing something." They look busy all the time. You know how it is. We try to impress the boss with or efforts. In early, leave late, always buzzing around.
Is that you? Are you always looking to look busy?
Who can blame you? It's the American way. We're paid to act, not think. Oh, your boss or your company will say that's not really true. Maybe they'll even value what you think and say - sometimes. But activity rules.
Okay, so you've got to keep up appearances from time to time. You need the job after all. And the only time it really irks you is when you stay late just to look like you're working hard. After all, you've got a family. It'd be nice to get home to see them sometimes, right? But you've got to just spin those wheels so you'll keep looking good, keep that job.
Then again, maybe you really are that busy. Maybe you really do need to run around from morning 'till who knows what time just to do your job. Some of us have jobs like that, or businesses that won't leave us alone. Hey, we're not spinning our wheels; we really need to run around, to stay late.
Look, I'm not questioning how hard you work. I get up really early too, and lots of nights I work late. So I'm with you. You've just got that much to do. But maybe even us guys who just have so much to do - so much "legitimate" activity - are just spinning our wheels too?
We Catholic men have a surefire way to know when we're really spinning our wheels. We've got God's will. Are we doing His will? Because if we're not, we're spinning our wheels. Forget whether you're "really" busy at work, or whether you're just keeping up appearances. Are you doing God's will?
Psalm 127 (126) lays it on the line:
See, it's God's will - even more specifically, God's work, that we do. When we work, we cooperate with Him.
He created the world, He keeps everything going all the time. Without Him it all stops. And we're instruments in His act of creation.
It's not just some poetic image or some sort of symbolism. That's really what we're doing when we work. We work as a kind of arm of the Lord. Otherwise we're pretty much spinning our wheels.
So that's why it's important to always be doing His will, to be asking Him what He wants us to do.
And it's OK if you don't "hear" His answer, or even if He seems to be ignoring you. Just let Him know that you know that the only thing that matters is that you're doing His will. Then go about your work - your busy, long, hard day of work.
Funny, but you may go right back to just doing what your were doing anyway. But it really does matter what your intention is. It really matters that you're telling Him you want to do His will. See, He'll figure out a way to make sure that you don't labor in vain. He'll use your work as part of His work.
But you've got to go to Him every day and let Him know Who's the boss, who you're really working for.
And at the end of your next exhausting day of work, you can rest. But when you rest, you should know this: He gives you rest. In the words of the Psalm:
At work, you meet people who are always "doing something." They look busy all the time. You know how it is. We try to impress the boss with or efforts. In early, leave late, always buzzing around.
Is that you? Are you always looking to look busy?
Who can blame you? It's the American way. We're paid to act, not think. Oh, your boss or your company will say that's not really true. Maybe they'll even value what you think and say - sometimes. But activity rules.
Okay, so you've got to keep up appearances from time to time. You need the job after all. And the only time it really irks you is when you stay late just to look like you're working hard. After all, you've got a family. It'd be nice to get home to see them sometimes, right? But you've got to just spin those wheels so you'll keep looking good, keep that job.
Then again, maybe you really are that busy. Maybe you really do need to run around from morning 'till who knows what time just to do your job. Some of us have jobs like that, or businesses that won't leave us alone. Hey, we're not spinning our wheels; we really need to run around, to stay late.
Look, I'm not questioning how hard you work. I get up really early too, and lots of nights I work late. So I'm with you. You've just got that much to do. But maybe even us guys who just have so much to do - so much "legitimate" activity - are just spinning our wheels too?
We Catholic men have a surefire way to know when we're really spinning our wheels. We've got God's will. Are we doing His will? Because if we're not, we're spinning our wheels. Forget whether you're "really" busy at work, or whether you're just keeping up appearances. Are you doing God's will?
Psalm 127 (126) lays it on the line:
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil...
See, it's God's will - even more specifically, God's work, that we do. When we work, we cooperate with Him.
He created the world, He keeps everything going all the time. Without Him it all stops. And we're instruments in His act of creation.
It's not just some poetic image or some sort of symbolism. That's really what we're doing when we work. We work as a kind of arm of the Lord. Otherwise we're pretty much spinning our wheels.
So that's why it's important to always be doing His will, to be asking Him what He wants us to do.
And it's OK if you don't "hear" His answer, or even if He seems to be ignoring you. Just let Him know that you know that the only thing that matters is that you're doing His will. Then go about your work - your busy, long, hard day of work.
Funny, but you may go right back to just doing what your were doing anyway. But it really does matter what your intention is. It really matters that you're telling Him you want to do His will. See, He'll figure out a way to make sure that you don't labor in vain. He'll use your work as part of His work.
But you've got to go to Him every day and let Him know Who's the boss, who you're really working for.
And at the end of your next exhausting day of work, you can rest. But when you rest, you should know this: He gives you rest. In the words of the Psalm:
...for he gives to his beloved sleep.
You're not spinning your wheels anymore. You work for Him and He takes care of you.
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