Shaking Up the Work Day - Part 3
Today we'll focus again on our theme of shaking up the work day and launch today's post from where we left off last time:
To begin to answer that question, let's recognize that we are indeed called to the imitation of Christ. There's even a famous devotional work, written in the 15th century by Thomas a Kempis, titled De Imitatione Christi - The Imitation of Christ. Countless spiritual works have taken up this idea, the lives of the saints can serve as examples, and the explicit teaching of our Holy Church reminds us of this. Here's just one beautiful expression of this from Cardinal Newman:
Connecting this to our work, as far as high standards go, well, don't we set "high bars" all the time. If not, we should. As anyone who's shot a bow and arrow knows, you aim high to counteract the forces of gravity if you want to hit your target. Shouldn't this apply to your work? If you want your business to prosper, if excellence characterizes your daily work, if you want to advance in your chosen career, you have to set the bar high. Your daily efforts need to be informed and inspired by objectives and standards that help you achieve whatever lofty goals you or your boss has set to help assure success. If you want to fly, aim high. Aim low, no go.
This applies as well to our personal lives. if we want to be loving husbands and fathers, loyal friends, good neighbors and citizens, we can only hope to do so by aiming high, even higher than we might consider reasonable or practical. Consider that our fallen human nature combined with Satan and his works (which we just rejected when we renewed our Baptismal vows during the Easter vigil) serves as a kind of gravitational force that drags us down. And so here too, we must aim high. Once we realize that, why not choose the one target that stands out above all others? Guess what, or rather Who, that might be? Despite the seemingly daunting nature of it, the life of Christ must be our example, our gold standard.
Which brings us back to shaking up the work day. Last time we offered some practical suggestions for shaking up your routine when you're in a rut. We extended that to our prayer life, which can also slip into a rut. But now we're aiming much higher. We're not only concerned about getting out of a rut. We're looking to muster our forces and - despite our initial misgivings - go for that gold standard in both our work lives and our personal lives. That calls for a deeper, more intense shaking up.
To understand how deep and how intense our shaking needs to be, consider the example of trying to get into shape after years of living a sedentary life style, not eating particularly healthy food. Sure, you're going to start slow and build up your exercises, as you learn to eat right. But at some point, you'll arrive at a stage where doing ten push-ups and walking a mile a day won't get you where you want to go. If you've ever tried to really get in shape, you know what I mean. Getting to that higher level takes chunks of time, entails sweating, sometimes even some pain. Now, multiply that by infinity and you'll have some idea what it's going to take to imitate Christ.
Impossible? Of course it is. At least it is if we think we can simply rely on our own effort and natural abilities. But the good news is, we don't rely on ourselves here; we understand that our natural abilities and efforts will only take us so far. We know that only with God's grace will we get where we want to go.
More on that next time.
For now, we recall once again our presence in this glorious Easter Season, proclaiming with our brothers and sisters in the Eastern Rites of our Holy Catholic Church:
And, yet again,
We'll see how the life of Christ, from birth to Resurrection, can and should be the gold standard of our daily activity, even - or perhaps especially - in the work place.Now, when it comes to shaking things up at work, this takes the cake. To me, at first blush, it seems ridiculous. For example, if you could measure the distance between my life and the life of Jesus Christ on earth, you would find a concrete example of the definition of "infinite." How could I even begin to consider a standard that appears so out of reach?
To begin to answer that question, let's recognize that we are indeed called to the imitation of Christ. There's even a famous devotional work, written in the 15th century by Thomas a Kempis, titled De Imitatione Christi - The Imitation of Christ. Countless spiritual works have taken up this idea, the lives of the saints can serve as examples, and the explicit teaching of our Holy Church reminds us of this. Here's just one beautiful expression of this from Cardinal Newman:
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
That all my life may be only a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus.
Flood my soul with Thy spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
That all my life may be only a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus.
Connecting this to our work, as far as high standards go, well, don't we set "high bars" all the time. If not, we should. As anyone who's shot a bow and arrow knows, you aim high to counteract the forces of gravity if you want to hit your target. Shouldn't this apply to your work? If you want your business to prosper, if excellence characterizes your daily work, if you want to advance in your chosen career, you have to set the bar high. Your daily efforts need to be informed and inspired by objectives and standards that help you achieve whatever lofty goals you or your boss has set to help assure success. If you want to fly, aim high. Aim low, no go.
This applies as well to our personal lives. if we want to be loving husbands and fathers, loyal friends, good neighbors and citizens, we can only hope to do so by aiming high, even higher than we might consider reasonable or practical. Consider that our fallen human nature combined with Satan and his works (which we just rejected when we renewed our Baptismal vows during the Easter vigil) serves as a kind of gravitational force that drags us down. And so here too, we must aim high. Once we realize that, why not choose the one target that stands out above all others? Guess what, or rather Who, that might be? Despite the seemingly daunting nature of it, the life of Christ must be our example, our gold standard.
Which brings us back to shaking up the work day. Last time we offered some practical suggestions for shaking up your routine when you're in a rut. We extended that to our prayer life, which can also slip into a rut. But now we're aiming much higher. We're not only concerned about getting out of a rut. We're looking to muster our forces and - despite our initial misgivings - go for that gold standard in both our work lives and our personal lives. That calls for a deeper, more intense shaking up.
To understand how deep and how intense our shaking needs to be, consider the example of trying to get into shape after years of living a sedentary life style, not eating particularly healthy food. Sure, you're going to start slow and build up your exercises, as you learn to eat right. But at some point, you'll arrive at a stage where doing ten push-ups and walking a mile a day won't get you where you want to go. If you've ever tried to really get in shape, you know what I mean. Getting to that higher level takes chunks of time, entails sweating, sometimes even some pain. Now, multiply that by infinity and you'll have some idea what it's going to take to imitate Christ.
Impossible? Of course it is. At least it is if we think we can simply rely on our own effort and natural abilities. But the good news is, we don't rely on ourselves here; we understand that our natural abilities and efforts will only take us so far. We know that only with God's grace will we get where we want to go.
More on that next time.
For now, we recall once again our presence in this glorious Easter Season, proclaiming with our brothers and sisters in the Eastern Rites of our Holy Catholic Church:
Christ is Risen!
Happy Easter!
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