Over this series we’ve been contemplating how to identify
Holy Ground in all sorts of ways. We pondered how our senses help us find that
Holy Ground.
We looked at the Holy Ground within ourselves and those around us.
Have you been able to look for, and see, Holy Ground more readily over the past
couple of months?
Many of us spend much of our time involved in work of some
sort. Do you find it difficult to think of the daily work as Holy Ground? It is
easy to get so involved in doing or finishing a project that we don’t take time
to look for God’s presence in what we are doing. We can also compartmentalize
our lives into ‘work for money’ and ‘work for God’. The Theology of Work Project focuses
on pointing out the truth that everything we do in life is ‘work for God’. It
may be sweeping a floor or running a multi-billion-dollar corporation. Everything we do, as we live, is part of
bringing the Kingdom of God into existence.
Some days we do it better than others. I don’t know about
you, but often I get focused on the task at hand and can easily resent an
interruption in the form of a phone call or someone coming into the office. I
have to remind myself that as Br. David Vryhof of the Society of St. John,
Evangelist says, “Interruptions are not
always obstacles; sometimes they are opportunities. If we fail to recognize
them, we will miss the experiences of grace that are hidden in them.” There is
a good chance that God is showing up in the form of that person on the other
end of the phone or standing in front of you, disguised as a coworker or
visitor.
When I do take time for what is happening around me, I
discover that I generally have enough time to finish my work, even with the
‘interruptions’. I also realize that I have been enriched and even blessed by
the people I interact with. When I stop
and refocus and remind myself that each thing I do is a Kingdom action, even
mundane tasks do feel more fulfilling.
It might be self-affirming to check off all the items on the
daily to-do list, but it is much more important to be present to the
opportunity to welcome God. Henri Nouwen (In
the Name of Jesus, 1989) suggests that we need to be “people with an ardent
desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's
beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word and to taste fully God's infinite
goodness.” We can only do that when we are open to the interruptions to our
plans.
It is gratifying to get a lot of work done and be recognized
as a ‘good’ or ‘dedicated’ worker. Again, it is the Brothers at the Society of
St. John, Evangelist who remind us, “We should not seek external reward for
service to God and to others because we could easily be distracted from the
true reward. The greater satisfaction,
the greater gratification, the greater reward is God. God promised to be
with us always; God promised to abide in us as we abide in God.” (Br. Mark
Brown)
This week, I’m going to try to be more aware of God’s
interruptions to my daily routine. As Mrs. Brown Sparrow says, in one of my
all-time favorite children’s stories, The
Contented Little Pussycat, “There are so many things to trouble a body.” I
would add, there are many, many things to keep us busy. The Contented Little
Pussycat responds, after much thought, that he is contented because he ‘never
worries about what might happen tomorrow’ or what happened yesterday. To be
contented, this wise kitten lives in the Now.
Since ‘now’ is all we really have, we would be well advised
to follow his advice and live this second and then the next. There’s a
Christian song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says all we have is ‘right now’,
and we should live The Next 5 Minutes
like it’s our ‘last 5 minutes’ .
Being aware of God in and through us in 5 minutes segments
might be a start to discovering that we are on God’s Holy Ground even in the
middle of our ‘working’ life. What might you do this week to live in the
present, the now, and take living 5 minutes at a time?
