Doing Great Things at Work: "Veni, Vidi, Deus Vincit!"
Few of us get to do anything "great" at work. That is, if by great you mean something widely recognized, that has a significant impact on a great number of people, or dramatically increases revenue, etc. And even if you've had a moment or two in this sort of spotlight, the fact remains that our days consist of mostly ordinary actions accomplishing ordinary results with limited, modest impact on "the world."
Recently, I spent some time with a group that encourages Catholic youth to aspire to "greatness" - a worthy endeavor, to be sure. Of course, we need to be cautious here. Such aspirations can easily result in a focus on "me." You succeed beyond your wildest dreams in some particular endeavor and forget that your success results from God's will, not your efforts. Okay, so your brilliant strategy and hard work had something to do with it. But the actual result only happens because it somehow fits into God's Plan (something we've just spent considerable time discussing).
My experience with this group brought to mind the exploits of those American fellows who disarmed the terrorist on a French train armed with an AK-47, ready to shoot and kill as many people as possible, naturally in the name of "Allah." If you've never seen these guys interviewed, you can find them on Youtube (naturally). I bring them up because these gents never intended to do anything extraordinary or great that day. Their exploits began with the simple reflex to defend themselves. In doing so they saved many others. They simply did what they thought they ought to do in the moment, not anticipating any particular result. As it turned out, their ultimate deed was extraordinary and, by any measure, great. I was impressed by their basic humility, even humor, when discussing the incident, although they were not shy about taking whatever credit was due. Their humility and humor, though, hinted at an understanding that any credit they took was of a limited nature. Maybe one or more of them understood that ultimate credit goes to God. I don't know.
Describing a much greater incident of saving the lives of others, the Polish King Jan Sobieski begins his account of the defeat of the Turkish siege of Vienna on September 12, 1683 thusly:
In all cases - everyday work, defending the lives of others threatened with death, saving Western Civilization - the credit, the glory, goes to God. For those of us who have not cultivated the habit of giving credit to God to the point where it has become the perfectly natural, knee-jerk reaction we have to any and every good thing we do, perhaps these immortal words of Jan Sobieski will serve as inspiration. He presented the green banner of the Prophet to the Pope with the following message, referencing Julius Caesar's famous Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered):
May this week at work find us ever more humble as we give credit to God for any and every one of our accomplishments. And if, as is likely, most, if not all, of what we do turns out to be of the most modest, ordinary type, remember that no matter how small or insignificant the accomplishment, they will nevertheless count as great if done for the greater glory of God.
Recently, I spent some time with a group that encourages Catholic youth to aspire to "greatness" - a worthy endeavor, to be sure. Of course, we need to be cautious here. Such aspirations can easily result in a focus on "me." You succeed beyond your wildest dreams in some particular endeavor and forget that your success results from God's will, not your efforts. Okay, so your brilliant strategy and hard work had something to do with it. But the actual result only happens because it somehow fits into God's Plan (something we've just spent considerable time discussing).
My experience with this group brought to mind the exploits of those American fellows who disarmed the terrorist on a French train armed with an AK-47, ready to shoot and kill as many people as possible, naturally in the name of "Allah." If you've never seen these guys interviewed, you can find them on Youtube (naturally). I bring them up because these gents never intended to do anything extraordinary or great that day. Their exploits began with the simple reflex to defend themselves. In doing so they saved many others. They simply did what they thought they ought to do in the moment, not anticipating any particular result. As it turned out, their ultimate deed was extraordinary and, by any measure, great. I was impressed by their basic humility, even humor, when discussing the incident, although they were not shy about taking whatever credit was due. Their humility and humor, though, hinted at an understanding that any credit they took was of a limited nature. Maybe one or more of them understood that ultimate credit goes to God. I don't know.
Describing a much greater incident of saving the lives of others, the Polish King Jan Sobieski begins his account of the defeat of the Turkish siege of Vienna on September 12, 1683 thusly:
The Immortal God, (to whom Honour and Glory be Ascribed for Ever) has Blest us with so Signal a Victory, as scarce the Memory of Man can Equal...Notice to whom he immediately gives credit for arguably one of the most important military victories in Western history. Here we find the perfectly natural, we might even say "knee-jerk" reaction of a man of faith. And here we find a perfectly natural example for us as we go about our work today. We may not be in the business of defending a great city's walls from a foreign invader, or saving Western civilization from Islamic domination, but in everything we do, let's try to get into the habit of giving credit to God for even the most modest of our successes.
In all cases - everyday work, defending the lives of others threatened with death, saving Western Civilization - the credit, the glory, goes to God. For those of us who have not cultivated the habit of giving credit to God to the point where it has become the perfectly natural, knee-jerk reaction we have to any and every good thing we do, perhaps these immortal words of Jan Sobieski will serve as inspiration. He presented the green banner of the Prophet to the Pope with the following message, referencing Julius Caesar's famous Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered):
Veni, Vidi, Deus Vincit!
(I came, I saw, God conquered.)
(I came, I saw, God conquered.)
May this week at work find us ever more humble as we give credit to God for any and every one of our accomplishments. And if, as is likely, most, if not all, of what we do turns out to be of the most modest, ordinary type, remember that no matter how small or insignificant the accomplishment, they will nevertheless count as great if done for the greater glory of God.
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