This Got Me Going at Work Today
Sometimes I need something to get me going at work. I confess that not everyday holds the promise of exciting work for me. Some days are just dull. The work I have to do is routine, even boring. I start feeling lazy and unmotivated.
I know some people who never seem to face these sorts of days. They're just naturally "up." They strike me as always motivated and running on high octane fuel all the time. You know these "high energy" types, don't you? Maybe you're one of them. I've always wondered whether high energy types ever feel bored at work. It can't be that everything they do is always exciting and inspiring, can it? Is it that their high energy just makes everything un-boring - even when it really is boring?
Anyway, that's not me. When something is dull and boring and tedious, I see it for what it is. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just facing reality as it is. But I don't think it's good when I let this sort of work push me over the edge into being lazy. Shouldn't I just forge ahead and offer up the boring, tedious stuff that drives me crazy for the Holy Souls in Purgatory instead of being lulled into a semi-conscious state? The work has to get done one way or the other. And if I get lazy and am lulled into a semi-coma, I'm falling behind. The work's not getting done. I'm not being faithful to my obligation to do a good job.
Indeed, I start feeling useless when I let this "down syndrome" get to me. No good to anyone, least of all to Our Lord, who gave his life for me and who, before that, worked at a job, just like I do.
Can you imagine our Lord getting lazy or whining or complaining about His work? I can't. So when I get like that, I sometimes think about Him. I see His example. Sometimes it shakes me out of my doldrums and I tackle the task at hand with renewed energy.
Sometimes not.
So this one day, I knew what was coming. And I was reading my Scripture this particular morning - the Epistle of St Jude. I know I've read this short letter before, but I never really focused on what Jude was saying. But this day was different. This day I was gripped by St Jude's description of some, as he describes them, ungodly characters he ran across - and they sounded a lot like me when I'm not putting out my full effort with attention and vigor - like I was about to do this day because what I had to do was going to be tedious and dull.
Check out this description:
...clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion; wandering stars, to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever.
That woke me up. THAT GOT ME GOING! I felt like one of those "ungodly" types - empty, a waste of life, floating in a sea of self-absorbed whining and complaining just because I had to do some tedious work.
Shame on me! Get up and get to work. Tackle that work with energy, focus, strict attention. Get it done quickly, perfectly (according to God's Will), on time. You're working for the greater glory of God, right? Isn't that what you say all the time? You just looked at Our Lord hanging on His Cross and offered up your day's work this morning. And now you're going to do it halfheartedly? You might as well be a cloud without water, unfruitful, TWICE DEAD!
So I got to work, forgot my woes, did my job, and - guess what? - after all that, the work was satisfying in the end. I wasn't bored. It wasn't even all that tedious - at least not the kind of tedious that drives me up a wall. In fact, there was some stuff in all that tedium that was kind of interesting.
God helps us in unexpected ways sometimes, doesn't He?
I know some people who never seem to face these sorts of days. They're just naturally "up." They strike me as always motivated and running on high octane fuel all the time. You know these "high energy" types, don't you? Maybe you're one of them. I've always wondered whether high energy types ever feel bored at work. It can't be that everything they do is always exciting and inspiring, can it? Is it that their high energy just makes everything un-boring - even when it really is boring?
Anyway, that's not me. When something is dull and boring and tedious, I see it for what it is. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just facing reality as it is. But I don't think it's good when I let this sort of work push me over the edge into being lazy. Shouldn't I just forge ahead and offer up the boring, tedious stuff that drives me crazy for the Holy Souls in Purgatory instead of being lulled into a semi-conscious state? The work has to get done one way or the other. And if I get lazy and am lulled into a semi-coma, I'm falling behind. The work's not getting done. I'm not being faithful to my obligation to do a good job.
Indeed, I start feeling useless when I let this "down syndrome" get to me. No good to anyone, least of all to Our Lord, who gave his life for me and who, before that, worked at a job, just like I do.
Can you imagine our Lord getting lazy or whining or complaining about His work? I can't. So when I get like that, I sometimes think about Him. I see His example. Sometimes it shakes me out of my doldrums and I tackle the task at hand with renewed energy.
Sometimes not.
So this one day, I knew what was coming. And I was reading my Scripture this particular morning - the Epistle of St Jude. I know I've read this short letter before, but I never really focused on what Jude was saying. But this day was different. This day I was gripped by St Jude's description of some, as he describes them, ungodly characters he ran across - and they sounded a lot like me when I'm not putting out my full effort with attention and vigor - like I was about to do this day because what I had to do was going to be tedious and dull.
Check out this description:
...clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion; wandering stars, to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever.
That woke me up. THAT GOT ME GOING! I felt like one of those "ungodly" types - empty, a waste of life, floating in a sea of self-absorbed whining and complaining just because I had to do some tedious work.
Shame on me! Get up and get to work. Tackle that work with energy, focus, strict attention. Get it done quickly, perfectly (according to God's Will), on time. You're working for the greater glory of God, right? Isn't that what you say all the time? You just looked at Our Lord hanging on His Cross and offered up your day's work this morning. And now you're going to do it halfheartedly? You might as well be a cloud without water, unfruitful, TWICE DEAD!
So I got to work, forgot my woes, did my job, and - guess what? - after all that, the work was satisfying in the end. I wasn't bored. It wasn't even all that tedious - at least not the kind of tedious that drives me up a wall. In fact, there was some stuff in all that tedium that was kind of interesting.
God helps us in unexpected ways sometimes, doesn't He?
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