What Happens If We Can't Consistently Achieve the Peace and Stability We Seek to Bolster Our Interior Life at Work?

Our recent posts have attempted to show the critical importance of a strong Interior Life. With the help of The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, we learned that, unless we're vigilant, our work life can "steal" time from our Interior Life. And giving short-shrift to our Interior Life means either we're not consistently building it up day to day or, worse, we're ignoring it completely. 

Why does this matter? Simply put, the peace and stability we gain from a strong Interior Life will be, first of all, our strongest ally in our daily struggle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. But it will also elevate our work life from the mere pursuit of money/career. We will, day in and day out prioritize the greater glory of God. (Remember, as Our Lord said, you can't serve God and mammon.)

Not only that, but various practical benefits ensue from our working on and building a strong Interior Life.

And to help us in our determination to build a strong Interior Life, even as we pursue our daily work diligently, we considered what was a rather striking recommendation:

1. I will always take more time than is necessary to do everything. This is the way to avoid being in a hurry and getting excited.

2. Since I will invariably have more things to do than time in which to do them, and this prospect preoccupies me and gets me all worked up, I will cease to think about all I have to do, and only consider the time I have at my disposal. I will make use of that time, without losing a moment of it, beginning with the most important duties; and as regards those that may or may not get done, I shall not worry about them.

What was striking was this: At first glance, such a recommendation seems to call for a rather laid-back, even lackadaisical approach to our daily tasks. However, as we saw last week, it isn't at all that.

Given that I've taken up this recommendation and have been working at it for a couple of months now, I can report back on the progress I've made. Frankly, it's been good, but not perfect. While bouts of being "all worked up" have diminished, they haven't disappeared. In addition, I started this in the weeks before Labor Day, a traditionally slow period for many businesses. 

Having begun my efforts during a kind of "charmed" period, I can say that in a few short days, one of those particularly challenging spells will come up again. If anything interesting is worth reporting, I'll do so. But even without the coming challenge, it's worth recognizing the simple fact that, even with max effort, it's likely that, even if successful for the most part, we shouldn't expect perfection. 

As a general rule, our fallen human nature has a way of undermining our best efforts in our spiritual life. And we can expect it to try to knock us off stride as we strive to achieve a level of peace and stability in our work lives such that we can calmly and persistently work on building and maintaining our Interior Life despite how busy things get at work.

Avoiding discouragement will be key here. Discouragement as you may know is and likely will always be one of the greatest threats to making progress in our spiritual life. Just as we can sometimes be derailed in our business when things don't go our way, so too our spiritual life can be derailed. In the case of our work, the simplest most direct and effective antidote might simply be to take a deep breath, pick ourselves up and get on with the day's tasks. In our spiritual life, we essentially need to do the same. But it can be especially difficult to simply "get on" with our prayers, pious practices, time set aside for meditation, etc. under certain circumstances.

(And lest we're tempted to diminish the importance of our spiritual practices, let's remember this: Our spiritual life ultimately involves matters of life and death - to be blunt, whether we get to Heaven of go to Hell. The problems we may face at work, even in extreme situations, pale in comparison.)

And, with this in mind, we need to consider not only discouragement, but three additional threats to the peace and stability of our spiritual life: desolation, distraction, and dryness. We'll first consider desolation with a personal example: 

As you may remember, we lost our oldest child in 2019. Without warning, he suffered a massive stroke and, after some days in ICU, died. (The shock of it never quite wears off.) During his time in ICU and in the days after his death, there were moments when I struggled with the concept that everything happens according to God's will. I did not myself, but I could easily see how someone could slip into spiritual desolation. I understood those who, in similar circumstances (such as the the case of a cousin of mine) could totally lose their faith, never mind stop pursuing their spiritual life. While I may have been a hair's breath away, I thank God everyday that I wasn't subjected to desolation. His grace kept me strong and steady.

And yet, even if we avoid the terrible threat of desolation, we may be subject to either distraction and/or dryness. Both of these, in the case of our spiritual life, can slowly but steadily undermine our efforts, even without some sort of existential crisis. Next time we'll consider both.

For now, let's sum up today's thoughts: We can and should pursue peace and stability in our work lives with the understanding that none of us is perfect. So any incursions of anxiety shouldn't discourage us in the least. And the most direct way to deal with such incursions is the simple pick yourself up and start all over again approach. For the most part, we can do this.

On the other hand, our spiritual lives may present challenges that require special consideration and attention. Having considered the powerful threat of desolation, we'll continue next time with distraction and dryness.