How To Make Everything Matter in the New Year
Everything we think, say and do matters - from our most fleeting thoughts to the shortest word or phrase that leaves our lips to our smallest gesture. In this New Year, let's determine to understand this and live in recognition of it. While it can seem burdensome or daunting, it's really not. In fact, it's important that we face reality as it is, which is all we're doing here.
These last couple of posts have really been about this reality. For example, when we spoke of the importance of considering the "opportunity cost" inherent in our business and personal decision-making, we were simple recognizing that what we choose to do or chose not to do has consequences, often far into the future. These consequences can sometimes be measured in monetary terms, as in the example where my Dad had to choose whether to buy the hot dog or put our money in the bank. Or they can be measured in terms of God-given graces as we saw last time in our discussion of taking advantage of the little opportunities God gives us each day.
So summing up, all we've been talking about is really and simply facing reality; we're recognizing that every moment of our lives whether we're at work, at play, or even asleep makes a difference in this world, and, more importantly, in the world to come.
To put it differently, everything we do has consequences today, tomorrow and ultimately in or eternal life - that life that awaits us all when we die. Keep this front and center in your mind from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. To do so means you are living each day authentically, as what you are: a creature of God, who was created to know, love and serve Him in this life and enjoy eternal life with Him in the next. To live any other way would be to live a fantasy.
Yes, I realize this view doesn't really match how most people live their lives - maybe doesn't match how you live your life right now. Most people stumble from day to day craving the pleasures of the moment, listening to those whisperings of the devil laced throughout the sounds and sights that inundate them through the slop they read and the distorted cacophony of sound that assaults them through sound speakers and all the devices into which so many of us plug our headphones and earbuds, all of which distracts us from the real world.
(The fact is, reality - as we understand it and are trying to explain it here - doesn't mix well with the slop and the goop that the world, the flesh and the devil serve up to us each day. Knowing this, Our Lord gave us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink - true food for souls craving something more than goop. That's why we get to Mass and receive Our Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, every week. It's why some of us try to get to Mass more than once a week.)
In this New Year we therefore have a choice: we can face reality and live as real Catholics or we can go about our lives like so many of those around us - mired in the mud of materialism, supping on slop and goop. We can choose to seize each moment of each day and make every thought, word and deed count by remembering that they do indeed matter; what we chose to do or not to do, at the end of the day, has consequences.
So, please, wake up this New Year. Look around you and grasp reality for what it really is: God's creation. Remember that He who created this world has a plan and that you fit into that plan; in addition, God has a specific plan just for you. Tell God you know this and that you want to do His Holy Will each and every moment of your life, this day and every day. Remember that He will give you the graces you need each and every moment to do His Holy Will, even when you can't see or "feel" His loving Hand guiding you. Have faith, have hope, be charitable.
And so as you get to work today, do so knowing that your work matters, that all the thoughts, words and deeds you use to address even those seemingly unimportant little tasks matter today, tomorrow and in the eternal life that awaits you.
In other words, everything matters.
These last couple of posts have really been about this reality. For example, when we spoke of the importance of considering the "opportunity cost" inherent in our business and personal decision-making, we were simple recognizing that what we choose to do or chose not to do has consequences, often far into the future. These consequences can sometimes be measured in monetary terms, as in the example where my Dad had to choose whether to buy the hot dog or put our money in the bank. Or they can be measured in terms of God-given graces as we saw last time in our discussion of taking advantage of the little opportunities God gives us each day.
So summing up, all we've been talking about is really and simply facing reality; we're recognizing that every moment of our lives whether we're at work, at play, or even asleep makes a difference in this world, and, more importantly, in the world to come.
To put it differently, everything we do has consequences today, tomorrow and ultimately in or eternal life - that life that awaits us all when we die. Keep this front and center in your mind from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. To do so means you are living each day authentically, as what you are: a creature of God, who was created to know, love and serve Him in this life and enjoy eternal life with Him in the next. To live any other way would be to live a fantasy.
Yes, I realize this view doesn't really match how most people live their lives - maybe doesn't match how you live your life right now. Most people stumble from day to day craving the pleasures of the moment, listening to those whisperings of the devil laced throughout the sounds and sights that inundate them through the slop they read and the distorted cacophony of sound that assaults them through sound speakers and all the devices into which so many of us plug our headphones and earbuds, all of which distracts us from the real world.
(The fact is, reality - as we understand it and are trying to explain it here - doesn't mix well with the slop and the goop that the world, the flesh and the devil serve up to us each day. Knowing this, Our Lord gave us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink - true food for souls craving something more than goop. That's why we get to Mass and receive Our Lord, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, every week. It's why some of us try to get to Mass more than once a week.)
In this New Year we therefore have a choice: we can face reality and live as real Catholics or we can go about our lives like so many of those around us - mired in the mud of materialism, supping on slop and goop. We can choose to seize each moment of each day and make every thought, word and deed count by remembering that they do indeed matter; what we chose to do or not to do, at the end of the day, has consequences.
So, please, wake up this New Year. Look around you and grasp reality for what it really is: God's creation. Remember that He who created this world has a plan and that you fit into that plan; in addition, God has a specific plan just for you. Tell God you know this and that you want to do His Holy Will each and every moment of your life, this day and every day. Remember that He will give you the graces you need each and every moment to do His Holy Will, even when you can't see or "feel" His loving Hand guiding you. Have faith, have hope, be charitable.
And so as you get to work today, do so knowing that your work matters, that all the thoughts, words and deeds you use to address even those seemingly unimportant little tasks matter today, tomorrow and in the eternal life that awaits you.
In other words, everything matters.
Happy New Year!
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