This Will Explain Why God Will Be With Us Throughout Our Workday Today

God will be with us throughout our work day today. 

Sure, it's good to develop the practice of recollecting ourselves from time to time to acknowledge His Presence. But the fact is, He is going to be with us.

There's consolation in this. 

Some of us have resolved to be more recollected during the work day. Then the day begins, the work flows and before we know it the work day is over. Did we even once think of God, acknowledge His Presence?

This is especially true for those of us who typically have a flood of work each day, and who have developed the discipline to begin promptly with that first and most important or urgent task, then move to the next and the next as we finish each.

Discipline in attending to our tasks and getting them done in a timely manner is certainly good. But when it results in a kind of shunting God aside, it can be frustrating.

Of course, we don't intend to keep God at bay. We really do want to at least say a few aspirations throughout the day - one effective way to acknowledge His Presence. But when that day zips by and we've not even mentally uttered a simple aspiration or two, it can get us into a bit of a funk.

We know God loves us. And, yes, we love Him. But how can we say we really love Him when it seems we've ignored Him?

While we've addressed this subject in the past, it's always good to refresh our consideration from time to time. After all, the struggle never seems to end.

Sure, we may find some days of "success" from time to time. We may hit a streak of acknowledging God's Presence a few times with perhaps some mental recognition, some aspirations. Formal prayer can help here. If we develop the habit and practice of such prayer during the day - as is the case with, for example, those who pray the Diving Office at certain hours - that can help here.

Of course, we can ride the wave of success only to find ourselves dashed when the wave finally crashes into the shore. Even if we have the habit of regular formal prayer, we may find that days go by where that prayer is more formal than from the heart. We pray it in at best a distracted manner, almost as if we didn't pray it at all.

Such are the ways of this world of ours, this Vale of Tears. Oh well.

Having acknowledged all this, let's turn now to an old friend, Abbot John Chapman. He will provide a context for all this struggle. We would be wise to heed his words. They'll help us as we navigate through our frequent days at work struggling to tip our cap to God from time to time.  

We'll see that, despite our failures and frustrations, God will nevertheless be with us throughout our work day. Here's why this is so:

“We have to learn in practice what we always knew in theory: everything that happens is God’s will. God’s will always intends our good. God’s will is carving us into the likeness of His Son. Every moment is the message of God’s will; every external event, everything outside us, and even every involuntary thought and feeling within us is God’s own touch. We are in living touch with God. Everything we come in contact with, the whole of our daily circumstances, and all our interior responses, whether pleasures or pains, are God’s working. We are living in God – in God’s action, as a fish in the water. There is no question of trying to feel that God is here, or to complain of God being far, once He has taught us that we are bathed in Him, in His action, in His will.” - Abbot John Chapman, O.S.B. (1865-1933)