Learn the Value of Perseverance at Work From Your Spiritual Life
Most of us know the value of perseverance at work. Perseverance: steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. Even the most skilled of us face moments when there's no other way to get the job done than by sheer perseverance.
Example: I've been working on a particularly sticky situation that's more or less made for my skill set. Left to my own devices, I'd likely have everything patted down neat and dry by now, but other people are involved in the mix. And frankly, they're the reason the situation remains sticky. This one wants (or worse feels) we should go this way; another one thinks that way is best. But rather than get frustrated (a natural tendency), I've just persevered in bringing everyone back to the table, so to speak, reviewing our objectives, and gently leading them to the solutions that I know (and they will know, I hope) will work.
The neat thing about perseverance is that it's a skill that anyone can learn, no matter the job, no matter your position.
And if you get good at perseverance, you might try applying it to your spiritual life, especially when you feel you're not making any progress. When you read what follows, you'll understand how and why most of us need perseverance if we want to make any progress in our spiritual lives. WARNING: This is a bit dense - serious stuff. You need to focus and read it slowly. If you don't have the time right now, wait until you do. The reward will be great.
Example: I've been working on a particularly sticky situation that's more or less made for my skill set. Left to my own devices, I'd likely have everything patted down neat and dry by now, but other people are involved in the mix. And frankly, they're the reason the situation remains sticky. This one wants (or worse feels) we should go this way; another one thinks that way is best. But rather than get frustrated (a natural tendency), I've just persevered in bringing everyone back to the table, so to speak, reviewing our objectives, and gently leading them to the solutions that I know (and they will know, I hope) will work.
The neat thing about perseverance is that it's a skill that anyone can learn, no matter the job, no matter your position.
And if you get good at perseverance, you might try applying it to your spiritual life, especially when you feel you're not making any progress. When you read what follows, you'll understand how and why most of us need perseverance if we want to make any progress in our spiritual lives. WARNING: This is a bit dense - serious stuff. You need to focus and read it slowly. If you don't have the time right now, wait until you do. The reward will be great.
“It is a surprising thing that miserable man here below can produce a single act of charity even when aided by grace. His senses from his earliest years are inclined towards exterior and palpable things. His reason knows of the existence of God only by deduction. Of the supernatural world he is utterly ignorant, except what he learns by hearsay. And this lowly being, so ignorant and so evilly inclined, still wants to obtain by a constant effort supernatural beauty and unalloyed happiness. With this end in view, he strains all the powers of his soul and body to reach this ideal, and at each inspiration, each call of invisible grace, he would rise higher still. This feeble creature of flesh and blood proposes to renounce, continually, his animal aspirations, to reform himself, to go against himself, to rectify his judgment and purify his heart, not once, or in a passing way, but always, under the influence of a mysterious agency, which he does not see, but in which he believes and whose help he implores. What a beautiful sight for the angels to see such a man, exposed to every kind of temptation, to all the attacks of the world and of the devil, and to all the delusions within him, return calmly and bravely to God, in spite of all his difficulties and weakness!
“Such a heroic life can be lived only at the cost of incessant struggle. Sanctity does not free the soul from this combat; on the contrary, it supposes it, and it exacts it. Perfection in this world does not mean rest and enjoyment. It is not a permanent static state; it is a march towards God, a continuous effort, an incessant tendency towards the supernatural ideal. All holiness here below is relative; it can and ought to grow without interruption. The more a soul unites herself to God and plunges herself into the depths of His infinity, the more her horizon widens and space stretches before her, for she confronts the infinite. Banish from your mind the false idea that you can find rest in this world. You are not here below to enjoy God, but to love Him by working, suffering, and struggling. Enjoyment is the reward of perseverance.” (Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R (1876-1945)
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