Time to Cross the Bridge at Work - Part 2

We're a quarter of the way across the bridge that consists of the week before and the week after Labor Day. The relative calm of end of summer will soon fade away. as the normal course and pace of work increases in our particular occupations.

We've been treading gingerly this year, based on all that's been swirling around us lately beginning with the ramping up of the "vaccine push." Companies are demanding we take the jab - or lose our jobs. Our kids in college must submit or be expelled, in some cases. Our kids in grammar school have to wear masks all day, even if they've been jabbed. Such pressure easily spills over into our work day.

Doing our best at work can be tough enough for most of us without the distractions that come with this latest phase of - as we've called it from the start - this C-Virus Mess. Our hope today is that our spiritual passage will provide some practical support to our daily work along with a boost to our spiritual lives. Specifically, we'll see how saints manage to deal with things that would have the rest of us either down in the dumps or pulling out our hair.

“Omnia in manu Dei sunt: all things are in the hand of God. Have you noticed how the saints always seem to be at their gayest when things go wrong? And why is it? Surely because they have just that faith in the plan, and in the Love that makes the plan. And when there is suffering for them, well, that too is part of the plan, and so to suffer is for them a privilege: it is part of that total work which is the saving of mankind, the song of love. And so they never waste time and energy brooding over the past or fussing over the future: they live in the present, they get on the immediate job that God gives them to do; and they leave lovingly in His hands the question of whether it shall be a success or a failure."

There's more, but let's make a quick note before continuing. If the cheerfulness of the saints seems beyond our grasp (at least now), even the grumpiest of us can live in the present. It takes focus, but that's always a basic component of any work day, right? How else can we produce great work in a limited time without focusing on the task at hand, one after the other. If we do that - and we must - we're basically living in the present, at least for the time we spend on our work. 

The next paragraph lays out the challenge to living in the present along with the reason why we want to meet that challenge.

“They live in the present. So often we forget the importance of each present moment: so fleeting that it seems of no importance, and yet, as we know, it is forever present to the eternity of God, forever present as an act of love and praise, or as a wastage and perhaps a betrayal. Live in the present: at this moment it is this job, this pain, this joy, that God gives me: then let me make of it as full and deep an act of praise as I can. So you cease to fret and worry, and so you find peace. Sometimes of course the job of the moment is the business of coping with worries; but worries are not the same thing as worrying; we cannot escape problems, but if they are God’s will for us, well, we can accept them as such and do our best with them without letting ourselves get hopelessly flustered, and the very willing of them as God’s will can in that case be a kind of peace.”

Tempus fugit: Time flies. We all know the phrase. We know it, but musn't give in to it. If we think of time as always flying by, we lose the Present Moment. And it's in that moment - those moments - that we meet God. 

At work, especially when we're super-busy, and pressed for time, we may find ourselves "fighting the clock." Understandable if we've got a hard deadline. But wouldn't it be better to have God fighting by our side. How much better it would be if we could only recall that God gives us this job, along with this pain, and this joy. All is held in His Hand in eternity. Nothing escapes His glance and His care for us. 

To get to the point of keeping Him present to us no matter how busy we might be would be the greatest blessing, wouldn't it? Even if the worries that come with life, and frequently come to work with us seem to get in the way, our author reminds us: worries are not the same thing as worrying; we cannot escape problems, but if they are God’s will for us, well, we can accept them as such and do our best with them without letting ourselves get hopelessly flustered, and the very willing of them as God’s will can in that case be a kind of peace.

The peace of God accompanying us each day at work would be another great blessing, wouldn't it?

More next time...