What God Really Wants From Us Today at Work

What does God really want from us today at work? You know, besides working for His Greater Glory, what specifically does He want? 

Are my daily efforts really pleasing to Him?

After all, I'm working hard most days. Up early, spending "quality time" with my Morning Routine (time in prayer, meditation, reading Scripture, good spiritual works, some study of the teachings of my Catholic Religion, etc.); showing up on time, ready to go when the work day begins; being reasonably organized, with a specific task list that addresses the current issues, demands, needs of my job.

All of this is good. But there's a danger lurking in our assiduous efforts here. It's best captured with the simple word "self."

As it turns out, "self" consistently tries to worm its way into even our best intentions and actions. 

It's a bit of a dilemma, no? We apply ourselves assiduously to our work having an intention to work for the greater glory of God. We have organized our work such that we know our priorities. We will attack the most important and urgent items first. We will continue to manage our work flow always doing our best.

Isn't this what we're "supposed" to do? Of course. But the danger remains.

Being human, with our fallen human nature, self will stress and strain to take as much credit for anything good we do. And the better our work, the more self wants to be stroked.

St. Francis de Sales talks about how self can spoil our good deeds, certainly our spiritual life. And since we offer all our work to God, what we produce each day will be subject to this spoilage.

Now, there's no question of not doing our best. And there's nothing here to really worry about. Our fallen human nature lies at the root of the problem. And there nothing we can really do about that.

But we can be aware of how self gloms onto all our accomplishments, all our good deeds, all our corporal and spiritual works of mercy - basically all of our ora et labora, i.e., our prayer and work. That's just how it is for us all in this Vale of Tears. We're human and must suffer self-spoilage to some degree.

Being aware of all this won't stop self in its tracks. It may slow self down, but it won't just go away.

So we simply struggle. We struggle against self. Being aware of all this, we become tuned in to self's games. That allows us to catch self in the act. It allows us to simply recognize our weakness. We might, in some cases, pray an Act of Contrition if self really got the best of us. But since it's almost impossible to do anything good with a purity that excludes self, we can't be scrupulous here. 

As to the question of what does God really want from us today, He's surely going to be pleased when we try to do our best on the job. He'll certainly understand how we're subjected to our wormy self. 

Psalm 39 allows us to take a step back from all this to answer the question of what God really wants from us without getting caught up in self's spidery web:  

6 Thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, O Lord my God: and in thy thoughts there is no one like to thee. I have declared and I have spoken they are multiplied above number. 7 Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire; but thou hast pierced ears for me. Burnt offering and sin offering thou didst not require: 8 Then said I, Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of me 9 That I should do thy will: O my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart. 10 I have declared thy justice in a great church, lo, I will not restrain my lips: O Lord, thou knowest it.

Simple: Do God's Will. If anything more than just doing our best is required it might be always, everywhere stating our intention to do God's Will. That means we don't care if things don't go our way, we mess up, or if the whole world is against us. It's all happening because somehow God willed it or permits it to happen. And if we really, truly want to do God's Will we will simply recognize this and accept it.

So do and accept God's Will. That's what He really wants from us at work today.

We can do this.