Why Keeping Chaos at the Gates Never Ends

Building on our recent posts, we must admit that keeping chaos at the gates really never ends. As we saw last time, our defense is a strong spiritual life. We want to build a solid Interior Life from which we survey the landscape each day. And from our interior perch, we surely cannot miss the chaos that's always brewing out there.

But don't fret. We won't be dwelling on the details of that chaos today. We've done enough of that for now. What we will do is point out something that should be obvious to any of us Catholic men at work who have taken the trouble to study our Holy Religion: The Devil is the Sower of Chaos.

Yes, he is known as the Father of Lies. But he is also the sower of of chaos. 

And the Devil will never relent - as long as God keeps this world of ours spinning - in sowing the seeds of chaos everywhere. 

So what does this rather daunting fact mean to us Catholic men at work?

At the very least, it serves as a reminder of what's really going on as we engage in our daily work. By "really going on" we point to the supernatural life, that life which stands above, under, around, and through our natural experience of our life in this world. To ignore the supernatural would be a grievous error. We have referenced this many times in the past, but it always bears repeating. It's so easy to pay it lip service and then go about our business without giving it a second thought.

So today, perhaps our awareness of the chaos at the gates, and the author of that chaos will serve us well.

For one thing, we can start our work day with our usual prayer that all our work be for the greater glory of God. And we can reinforce our intention with our knowledge of what the devil may be up to. With that reinforcement, perhaps we will be less inclined to make our intention a kind of pro forma action, and understand that just what commitment we have made with that intention.

We start with our understanding that it will likely be in the ordinary, every-day, sometimes somewhat boring activities that fill in our work day. This even applies to those of us with more glamorous or high-profile sorts of jobs. It certainly will apply also to those of us who run a business.

Some examples of the above:

For "glamorous" we might consider those actors or performers who entertain us. They have traditionally been considered to live relatively - for want of a better term - glamorous lives. We see them on screen, listen to their music, maybe even read about their personal lives (if indeed we so indulge) and might contrast their work and their personal lives with our own. But, knowing some actors, there can be long stretches between active work. And even when working, actors in film spend a lot of time just waiting around for shots to be set up. Performers who like that sort of work thrive when they're playing and performing. But what about when they're not? They've got gobs of down time that can get downright hum-drum and boring.

High-profile expands this to include those who rise in their professions and stand out from the crowd in some way. They garner attention from "the crowd." If you work in a big corporation, unless you're at or near the top of the corporate ladder, you look up and see these guys and gals as they attend high profile meetings, manage the business, provide leadership, etc. And meanwhile, those of us who do the nuts and bolts stuff that keeps the business running can think we've got the short end of the stick.

Or what about business owners? Surely they've got the prize. They work "for themselves." So they're call all the shots. They do what they want when they want, right? Well, if you've ever tried this, you know it's not how it goes. We business owners have customers and clients. And they more or less call the shots. If you're a sole proprietor with no employees, everything falls on your plate, day in, day out. And the details can be both daunting and, not infrequently, tedious and boring.

Fact is, we all share in the great pot of simmering ordinary, every-day, sometimes somewhat boring activities that fill the days of the vast majority of our lives, whether worker bee or President of the United States. Really.

It is there, in those moments, that we can secure the sanctification of our souls and, in doing so, secure that Gate the can keep chaos at bay as we work - on both a practical and a spiritual level.