Make Your Work Productive, continued...
So we're talking about how we want to be productive, to accomplish things at work. But we don't want to just wind up being all self-involved where all we care about is what we want. We know we should always want to do God's will - in fact we really do want to do God's will. But then we hit this brick wall.
You see, after praying to God and telling Him we want to do His will, at some point we've got to just get back to work. You can't just sit around and pray to God that you want to do His will all day, right? You've got to actually start working at whatever it is you do. And when you do start working, you sometimes wonder: am I really doing what He wants me to do? After all that praying, am I really doing God's will? How would I know I'm doing His will. I mean, it's not like He sent me an e-mail confirming that I'm doing His Will. It's not like I heard some voice telling me that "Yes, son, you're definitely on track now doing My Will."
Well, there's a way to deal with this. First, get over thinking that just because you pray, you will in fact do the perfect thing right now.
For example, I can't count how many times I've prayed to God that I want to do His will and wound up screwing something up right after that. And I thought: "That can't be His will; I just screwed this thing up." And then I started doubting myself, started maybe even thinking I didn't really want to do His will after all. Maybe I was just kidding myself.
Forget all that! Maybe His will was that I screw things up! Really, maybe that was His will for me at that time.
The point is I really don't know. And it doesn't matter that I don't know. Who the heck am I to think I can peer into God's mind and know what His plan is for me - and the rest of the world for that matter. He's got His plan going, and I just don't know what it is all the time. And why should I?
All I really have to concern myself with is the simple fact that I prayed, I told God that Iwanted to do His will - something along these lines: "I have prayed and have the right intention: therefore God will be satisfied with the stupid things I say or when I screw things up. He knows I can't do any better."
And then, over time, those imperfect acts, those stupid things I do or say, prove curiously effective, as if by accident, even while we feel and appear foolish - and are maybe somewhat humbled by the whole experience.
By the way, doesn't that take out the whole selfish thing from our acts? See, if God lets us be bumblers, but somehow things work out in the end, we won't be tempted by pride so much. Our productive activities, the things we accomplish won't feed our egos so much. Brilliant strategy, isn't it? Well, it's God's strategy, after all, so why be surprised at just how brilliant it is?
Anyway, the thing is, we never really know what God's will is going to be. And not knowing can help increase our humility, especially in our foolishness and incompetence. And if we're really smart, even when we're really on top of our game, we'll cling even harder to Our Lord, pray even harder so that we'll always do His will - and just forget all about ourselves.
The key is we've got to just go ahead and take action, even while we're not so sure that we're really doing God's will. As long as we expressed our intention - an act of our will - we're OK.
If you think of it, you can throw something into your prayers about how you want your work to accomplish not only the immediate objective you've got before you, but also to be for the common good as well. God will appreciate the fact that you understand that all our work ultimately should serve the common good. But He also knows that, most of the time, we're really not going to know exactly how this particular task, or that project we're working on, will be for the common good.
If you do see how your work can benefit the common good, great. But don't worry if you can't see that right now. Leave that up to Him. He'll somehow see that your efforts do serve the common good - maybe without you even knowing just how they do. Remember it's His Plan that matters, not yours, in the end.
So we Catholic men just need to keep letting Him know we want to do His will - then get right back to work. Which reminds me, I've got this important project I'm working on right now that I've got to get to. See you later.
You see, after praying to God and telling Him we want to do His will, at some point we've got to just get back to work. You can't just sit around and pray to God that you want to do His will all day, right? You've got to actually start working at whatever it is you do. And when you do start working, you sometimes wonder: am I really doing what He wants me to do? After all that praying, am I really doing God's will? How would I know I'm doing His will. I mean, it's not like He sent me an e-mail confirming that I'm doing His Will. It's not like I heard some voice telling me that "Yes, son, you're definitely on track now doing My Will."
Well, there's a way to deal with this. First, get over thinking that just because you pray, you will in fact do the perfect thing right now.
For example, I can't count how many times I've prayed to God that I want to do His will and wound up screwing something up right after that. And I thought: "That can't be His will; I just screwed this thing up." And then I started doubting myself, started maybe even thinking I didn't really want to do His will after all. Maybe I was just kidding myself.
Forget all that! Maybe His will was that I screw things up! Really, maybe that was His will for me at that time.
The point is I really don't know. And it doesn't matter that I don't know. Who the heck am I to think I can peer into God's mind and know what His plan is for me - and the rest of the world for that matter. He's got His plan going, and I just don't know what it is all the time. And why should I?
All I really have to concern myself with is the simple fact that I prayed, I told God that Iwanted to do His will - something along these lines: "I have prayed and have the right intention: therefore God will be satisfied with the stupid things I say or when I screw things up. He knows I can't do any better."
And then, over time, those imperfect acts, those stupid things I do or say, prove curiously effective, as if by accident, even while we feel and appear foolish - and are maybe somewhat humbled by the whole experience.
By the way, doesn't that take out the whole selfish thing from our acts? See, if God lets us be bumblers, but somehow things work out in the end, we won't be tempted by pride so much. Our productive activities, the things we accomplish won't feed our egos so much. Brilliant strategy, isn't it? Well, it's God's strategy, after all, so why be surprised at just how brilliant it is?
Anyway, the thing is, we never really know what God's will is going to be. And not knowing can help increase our humility, especially in our foolishness and incompetence. And if we're really smart, even when we're really on top of our game, we'll cling even harder to Our Lord, pray even harder so that we'll always do His will - and just forget all about ourselves.
The key is we've got to just go ahead and take action, even while we're not so sure that we're really doing God's will. As long as we expressed our intention - an act of our will - we're OK.
If you think of it, you can throw something into your prayers about how you want your work to accomplish not only the immediate objective you've got before you, but also to be for the common good as well. God will appreciate the fact that you understand that all our work ultimately should serve the common good. But He also knows that, most of the time, we're really not going to know exactly how this particular task, or that project we're working on, will be for the common good.
If you do see how your work can benefit the common good, great. But don't worry if you can't see that right now. Leave that up to Him. He'll somehow see that your efforts do serve the common good - maybe without you even knowing just how they do. Remember it's His Plan that matters, not yours, in the end.
So we Catholic men just need to keep letting Him know we want to do His will - then get right back to work. Which reminds me, I've got this important project I'm working on right now that I've got to get to. See you later.
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