Does Lent Make a Difference in Your Work?
Lent arrived last week. In New York City, we saw the usual spectacle of people on long lines at St Patrick's Cathedral on Ash Wednesday. I don't know how it is at your church, but my sense is that lots of Catholics who don't even go to Mass on Sunday show up for ashes. Strange, isn't it?
Anyway, Ash Wednesday's gone now, and, of course, we're all into our Lenten discipline, right? Okay, so maybe you got off to a slow start. Maybe you forgot to "plan" your Lent, to make some sort of commitment to Our Lord about what you're going to do to grow closer to Him. That's all right. There's still time. It's only the first full week of Lent. If you haven't decided what you want to do for Lent, do it now.
If you did decide, I hope you included your work. There's got to be something "Lenten" you can do at work. No, I don't mean you should decorate your office or cubicle in purple or anything. In fact, I realize that in most work places any reference whatsoever to your Catholic faith - visual, auditory, whatever - would probably be considered "offensive" either by a fellow worker or even more probably by your HR department.
But you can still take Lent with you to work. You can still practice your Lenten discipline during the workday.
If you're not sure what to do, or how to go about doing it, I'll share what I committed to do at work during Lent. I'm going to work on "rigor."
If you look up "rigor" in the dictionary, you'll find lots of references to "severe" or "harsh." That's not what I'm working on. To understand that, look up "rigorous" and go down to the third or fourth definition. You'll find something like: "rigidly accurate, precise".
(Yes, I realize that being "rigid" is one of the few sins recognized these days. Heaven forbid any of us is "rigid" about anything. But I digress.)
Why rigor? It's a word you don't hear much today. But I heard it the other day from a colleague. He's been very successful in his work life and we were talking about how he got to be successful. So it got me thinking about how I tend to put off dealing with aspects of my job that require precision and accuracy. I eventually get to it, and frequently do a pretty good job when I put my mind to it. But I waste time avoiding the inevitable unpleasantness of having to focus on details.
Anyway, since this is something I recently thought about, right about the time I was wondering what I could do at work that would help me keep my Lenten spirit during the workday, "rigor" just sort of popped up in my mind. I thought about it for a while and concluded it was perfect for this year's Lent.
So I'm going to apply myself rigorously when I have to dive into details at work. I'm not going to complain or moan or put off the task that requires me to apply my thinking rigorously and provide the level of detail that my work sometimes requires. And if I find myself recoiling from the strain of being rigorous (yes, it's a strain for me...boo-hoo) then I'll offer it up. I'll tell Our Lord that I'm going to dive right in and do my very best because I love Him and I know that He would want me to do my very best.
Maybe it improves my work, maybe not. Like I said, when I apply myself, I can produce some pretty detailed stuff at work. The point here would be the spirit in which I apply myself - with love. Yes, love. Love of Our Lord.
Well, that's the way I've found to make sure Lent makes a difference at work.
Anyway, Ash Wednesday's gone now, and, of course, we're all into our Lenten discipline, right? Okay, so maybe you got off to a slow start. Maybe you forgot to "plan" your Lent, to make some sort of commitment to Our Lord about what you're going to do to grow closer to Him. That's all right. There's still time. It's only the first full week of Lent. If you haven't decided what you want to do for Lent, do it now.
But you can still take Lent with you to work. You can still practice your Lenten discipline during the workday.
If you're not sure what to do, or how to go about doing it, I'll share what I committed to do at work during Lent. I'm going to work on "rigor."
If you look up "rigor" in the dictionary, you'll find lots of references to "severe" or "harsh." That's not what I'm working on. To understand that, look up "rigorous" and go down to the third or fourth definition. You'll find something like: "rigidly accurate, precise".
(Yes, I realize that being "rigid" is one of the few sins recognized these days. Heaven forbid any of us is "rigid" about anything. But I digress.)
Why rigor? It's a word you don't hear much today. But I heard it the other day from a colleague. He's been very successful in his work life and we were talking about how he got to be successful. So it got me thinking about how I tend to put off dealing with aspects of my job that require precision and accuracy. I eventually get to it, and frequently do a pretty good job when I put my mind to it. But I waste time avoiding the inevitable unpleasantness of having to focus on details.
Anyway, since this is something I recently thought about, right about the time I was wondering what I could do at work that would help me keep my Lenten spirit during the workday, "rigor" just sort of popped up in my mind. I thought about it for a while and concluded it was perfect for this year's Lent.
So I'm going to apply myself rigorously when I have to dive into details at work. I'm not going to complain or moan or put off the task that requires me to apply my thinking rigorously and provide the level of detail that my work sometimes requires. And if I find myself recoiling from the strain of being rigorous (yes, it's a strain for me...boo-hoo) then I'll offer it up. I'll tell Our Lord that I'm going to dive right in and do my very best because I love Him and I know that He would want me to do my very best.
Maybe it improves my work, maybe not. Like I said, when I apply myself, I can produce some pretty detailed stuff at work. The point here would be the spirit in which I apply myself - with love. Yes, love. Love of Our Lord.
Well, that's the way I've found to make sure Lent makes a difference at work.
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