Another Day of Gratitude at Work

Every day can and should be a day of gratitude. There's so much to thank God for. Sometimes His blessings appear to gently shower upon us like the life-giving rain in spring. Sometimes we need to recollect ourselves and look for His blessings. That's especially true when things don't seem to be going our way. Our last post tried to address this in a most personal way.

Today we'll look at a few more items that might cause us to be grateful, focusing on our work. While our last post may not apply to most of us, these likely will.

Why not start with simply having work to do? And it's not just about the money we earn, although that's significant enough, especially if we are struggling to support a family. Our work should be a fundamental part of our struggle to be a saint. We can sanctify our work. We've posted many times about this. Indeed, it's one of key themes of our blog.

So let's sanctify every bit of our work.

If we have work that's particularly satisfying, we can surely easily be grateful for that. Thank You, God, for giving me this wonderful work to do today! Not everyone enjoys this privilege. Many folks work at jobs that range from boring to downright repulsive. Been there, done that.

For those of us whose work is less than wonderful, we can be grateful in a different way. We can make the best of it, starting with being charitable to our fellow workers, even being cheerful despite our dislike of work. If we do this with the intention of glorifying God, our work will serve as a source of great merit. And merit is the sort of treasure we want to store up for our eventual entry into Heaven.

How about those of us starting a new job in a new year? Count me into this club. Talk about gratitude! The timing and the nature of the job literally overwhelmed me. I began my first day - the day after New Year's at Mass and never looked back. It was a pretty good run, that new job in the New Year situation.

But maybe this year brings some stiff challenge or challenges. What then? Depending on the degree of difficulty, we can rack up some serious points by being grateful to be able to do our best to meet our challenges. You know, it's like the extra points athletes like divers, gymnasts, and figure skaters get when their routines are more difficult. 

One such challenge crossed my desk a long time ago. I worked in the cable TV industry. It was at a time before the "Big Guys" consolidated the industry into the companies we're all familiar with. This was a partnership that was laying the initial cable, looking to ultimately sell to one of the Biggies. In those days, you went door to door - literally - to sell the service. I was one of those sales guys. It was a pretty tough job. Cable was new. Most people thought they either couldn't afford it or they were suspicious of it. 

We had a special program of giving away a free month - which made the initial sale a bit easier (but tougher than you might think). After that, we had to "convert" the freebies into paying customers.  Long story short, the New Year brought a heavy "mandate" from our crazy General Manager that we better convert - or else. Pressure? Yep.

Anyway, I came up with a really great idea how to convert. It was wildly successful. (As much luck as brilliance.) And was I grateful that it was. Not only did it bring in good commissions for my family (there was no salary with the job), but the huge pressure that came with the crazy GM's mandate eased up.

I'd tell you I was first and foremost grateful to God, but my faith was wobbly at the time. Still, I did at some point figure out that God at the very least wasn't against me, so He must have been for me.

Well, I got carried away with that one. Kind of dramatic, yes? Maybe you've got some examples like this to dip into the gratitude bucket and thank the Lord. If not, maybe these examples given will spur some creative thinking to dig deep and look for all - or at least some - situations you can be grateful for at work. Try hard enough and you'll find them.

Frankly, I prefer the tough situations where you have to suck it up and suffer a bit (or a lot). I think you get more merit for those. Anyone can say "Thank you" when they get something they really wanted or especially like. 

Not that I'm looking for trouble or problems, but when they come they can be deep sources to spur the sort of gratitude that I think would please Our Lord greatly.