The Interior Life at Work
Develop your interior life - even at work. An interior life exists when you find God in all things - even at work.
You don't hear much about the interior life these days. But it's fundamental to our Catholic Faith. Here's one reason the interior life has slipped off the radar screen: busy-ness.
Busy, busy, busy: you see and feel "busy-ness" every day, all around you. Stop and look sometime, wherever you happen to be where there are other people. Everyone's rushing here and there. Where are they going; what are they doing? Wherever and whatever, you can be sure they're busy going there and doing it.
How about you? Are you like this - always busy from morning until night?
Not that you don't have a lot to do, of course. In fact, sometimes - maybe most times - it seems like "it never ends." Even if you complete a project - at work or at home - the brief moment of satisfaction for a job well done morphs in an instant into: "Next!"
So our lives are busy. Part of it is simply the nature of the beast - the beast being our life in this world. It's just how things are. Maybe part of it comes from us, from the way we choose to work our way through the day. We rush from one thing to the next, always feeling like we're never ahead of the game, always behind the eight ball, never ahead of the curve.
Okay, enough. Whatever the reason that you run around so much of the time, you've simply got to take care to make sure the rush doesn't crush your interior life. You must make sure that you learn to see God in everything - all the time.
For me, just re-reading that last sentence causes distress, even shame. Some days, from the moment I wake up until I plop into bed (frequently forgetting to perform at least a brief examination of conscience), I'm moving quickly, with great urgency, to get to work, dive right into the tasks that always, ALWAYS, seems so pressing, take a quick lunch, get back to work, get home if not exhausted, at least too tired to give anyone or anything much serious thought or attention. Food, I want food! Distraction, yes, some distraction please (TV, internet, radio, music...ANYTHING!). Sleep, ah, blessed sleep. (What, no examination of conscience AGAIN?!!) Heck, if it weren't for the 45 minutes or so I've disciplined myself to spend in prayer, study and meditation each morning - with maybe attendance at daily Mass - you'd have to do a thorough search of my heart, mind and soul to find the least presence of God in my daily life.
As for finding God in everything, well, some days it never occurs to me, not in the least.
So back to the beginning. Back to my prayer, study and meditation, back to my daily Mass, and, yes, back to examining my conscience at night, in addition to my prayers before going to sleep. Now, with that all in place, look at all that lies between. That's the "frontier," the great time and space where I need to learn to find God. I need to do whatever it takes to find God in that vast interior frontier.
God is in everything! And a strong interior life means that you know it and live this tremendous truth throughout each and every day - no matter how busy, busy, busy you are.
Think about it: if God is in everything, and you just rush through your day never seeing Him in everything, then you are spending your life rushing past God over and over again, without the slightest acknowledgment that He even exists. How would you like it if everyone in your family, or even everyone at work, just rushed past you every day, day after day, without even saying "Hello"?
Ot think about this: If you don't develop your interior life, then what makes you different than any other busy soul you see rushing about all around you every day? What makes you different from the vast sea of people for whom God is at best an occasional thought, with maybe attendance at Mass or some Sunday service thrown in from time to time. Indeed, what makes you different from an agnostic - or even an atheist?
Be a real Catholic: develop your interior life. Find God in everything. He's there waiting for you. Don't rush past Him anymore.
You don't hear much about the interior life these days. But it's fundamental to our Catholic Faith. Here's one reason the interior life has slipped off the radar screen: busy-ness.
Busy, busy, busy: you see and feel "busy-ness" every day, all around you. Stop and look sometime, wherever you happen to be where there are other people. Everyone's rushing here and there. Where are they going; what are they doing? Wherever and whatever, you can be sure they're busy going there and doing it.
How about you? Are you like this - always busy from morning until night?
Not that you don't have a lot to do, of course. In fact, sometimes - maybe most times - it seems like "it never ends." Even if you complete a project - at work or at home - the brief moment of satisfaction for a job well done morphs in an instant into: "Next!"
So our lives are busy. Part of it is simply the nature of the beast - the beast being our life in this world. It's just how things are. Maybe part of it comes from us, from the way we choose to work our way through the day. We rush from one thing to the next, always feeling like we're never ahead of the game, always behind the eight ball, never ahead of the curve.
Okay, enough. Whatever the reason that you run around so much of the time, you've simply got to take care to make sure the rush doesn't crush your interior life. You must make sure that you learn to see God in everything - all the time.
For me, just re-reading that last sentence causes distress, even shame. Some days, from the moment I wake up until I plop into bed (frequently forgetting to perform at least a brief examination of conscience), I'm moving quickly, with great urgency, to get to work, dive right into the tasks that always, ALWAYS, seems so pressing, take a quick lunch, get back to work, get home if not exhausted, at least too tired to give anyone or anything much serious thought or attention. Food, I want food! Distraction, yes, some distraction please (TV, internet, radio, music...ANYTHING!). Sleep, ah, blessed sleep. (What, no examination of conscience AGAIN?!!) Heck, if it weren't for the 45 minutes or so I've disciplined myself to spend in prayer, study and meditation each morning - with maybe attendance at daily Mass - you'd have to do a thorough search of my heart, mind and soul to find the least presence of God in my daily life.
As for finding God in everything, well, some days it never occurs to me, not in the least.
So back to the beginning. Back to my prayer, study and meditation, back to my daily Mass, and, yes, back to examining my conscience at night, in addition to my prayers before going to sleep. Now, with that all in place, look at all that lies between. That's the "frontier," the great time and space where I need to learn to find God. I need to do whatever it takes to find God in that vast interior frontier.
God is in everything! And a strong interior life means that you know it and live this tremendous truth throughout each and every day - no matter how busy, busy, busy you are.
Think about it: if God is in everything, and you just rush through your day never seeing Him in everything, then you are spending your life rushing past God over and over again, without the slightest acknowledgment that He even exists. How would you like it if everyone in your family, or even everyone at work, just rushed past you every day, day after day, without even saying "Hello"?
Ot think about this: If you don't develop your interior life, then what makes you different than any other busy soul you see rushing about all around you every day? What makes you different from the vast sea of people for whom God is at best an occasional thought, with maybe attendance at Mass or some Sunday service thrown in from time to time. Indeed, what makes you different from an agnostic - or even an atheist?
Be a real Catholic: develop your interior life. Find God in everything. He's there waiting for you. Don't rush past Him anymore.
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