Advent at Work: Growing Your Business and Your Spiritual Life
(Originally posted on December 10, 2013)
It is said that a business must grow - or it dies. We've all seen examples of this. And it's only common sense, if you think about it. If a business isn't growing, it's shrinking; and if it keeps shrinking, eventually it's dead. Simple as that.
So, whether we are employees or own and run a business, our efforts each day must in some way consider this basic rule. We work hard to not only accomplish our tasks each day, but we work with the hope that our efforts result in the growth of our business. Ignore this fundamental reality at your peril.
Now let's look at our spiritual lives and apply the same principal. Again, common sense tells us that our spiritual life will either grow, or it will shrink. And if it shrinks consistently, it will eventually die. Make sense?
If our business fails to grow, we can either apply ourselves more diligently and/or intelligently and try to right things. And sometimes we can, indeed, succeed in turning things around. Many of us, I suspect, have faced such circumstances. If we can't turn things around on our own, we seek assistance. In fact, there are people who specialize in just that: turnaround specialists. They turn failing businesses around and get them on the path to growth again.
But what do we do when it becomes clear to us that our spiritual life isn't growing? We can try to apply ourselves more diligently to those actions which serve to grow our spiritual lives like attending Mass, going to confession, reading Scripture and good spiritual works, etc. We can seek assistance from a good spiritual director. Advent, this season of preparation for Christmas and the season that begins the new Liturgical Year, reminds us of our need to grow. The graces which flow to us during this Holy Season bolster our efforts to grow.
In a sense, Our Lord and Our Lady are our spiritual "turnaround" specialists. In the moment Our Lady said "Yes" to the angel Gabriel, from the moment Our Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit in her womb, light returned to a world darkened by the Original Sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Before the Incarnation, at best our world stumbled, blinded by the stain of that sin. Our efforts to grow were hampered by our blindness, born of ignorance. Now, since the Incarnation, we can grow again.
Advent reminds us of this fresh start. While our efforts to grow our business may or may not succeed, by the virtue of Hope we can be assured that our efforts to grow in our spiritual life will, in fact, succeed. We only need to ask for the grace to grow from Our Lord and Our Lady.
It is said that a business must grow - or it dies. We've all seen examples of this. And it's only common sense, if you think about it. If a business isn't growing, it's shrinking; and if it keeps shrinking, eventually it's dead. Simple as that.
So, whether we are employees or own and run a business, our efforts each day must in some way consider this basic rule. We work hard to not only accomplish our tasks each day, but we work with the hope that our efforts result in the growth of our business. Ignore this fundamental reality at your peril.
Now let's look at our spiritual lives and apply the same principal. Again, common sense tells us that our spiritual life will either grow, or it will shrink. And if it shrinks consistently, it will eventually die. Make sense?
If our business fails to grow, we can either apply ourselves more diligently and/or intelligently and try to right things. And sometimes we can, indeed, succeed in turning things around. Many of us, I suspect, have faced such circumstances. If we can't turn things around on our own, we seek assistance. In fact, there are people who specialize in just that: turnaround specialists. They turn failing businesses around and get them on the path to growth again.
But what do we do when it becomes clear to us that our spiritual life isn't growing? We can try to apply ourselves more diligently to those actions which serve to grow our spiritual lives like attending Mass, going to confession, reading Scripture and good spiritual works, etc. We can seek assistance from a good spiritual director. Advent, this season of preparation for Christmas and the season that begins the new Liturgical Year, reminds us of our need to grow. The graces which flow to us during this Holy Season bolster our efforts to grow.
In a sense, Our Lord and Our Lady are our spiritual "turnaround" specialists. In the moment Our Lady said "Yes" to the angel Gabriel, from the moment Our Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit in her womb, light returned to a world darkened by the Original Sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Before the Incarnation, at best our world stumbled, blinded by the stain of that sin. Our efforts to grow were hampered by our blindness, born of ignorance. Now, since the Incarnation, we can grow again.
Advent reminds us of this fresh start. While our efforts to grow our business may or may not succeed, by the virtue of Hope we can be assured that our efforts to grow in our spiritual life will, in fact, succeed. We only need to ask for the grace to grow from Our Lord and Our Lady.
Divine Infant of Bethlehem,
come and take birth in our hearts
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