A Model of Work

Lately, a lot of my thoughts during prayer have been about work - current work, past work, future work.  I've been thinking about the joys and the frustrations.  Reflecting on moments where I am not proud of my actions, whether I yelled at my students because they haven't followed a direction for the millionth time or ignored a bad behavior correction because I didn't have the energy to deal with it.  And also the good moments, the ones where I help a student truly understand, or I have the opportunity to encourage a student and build up their self-esteem.  I know that there is a lot of parts to my job that require me to serve my students, but sometime it's hard to keep that focus in a room full of personalities and behaviors. The more I struggle, the more I pray.  And the main goal of all of this prayer is to figure out, not only my long term vocation, but how to live out my daily vocation to love my students and how to make those moments blessed and oriented towards God.

God has opened up a wonderful revelation to me - Jesus lived a life, very similar to ours before he began his apostolic ministry.  He spent his days working as a carpenter, talking to clients that purchased his product, interacting with Mary, Joseph, and friends, and living a simple life.  No bells and whistles, nothing extraordinary, just a normal working life. 

The only thing that was different about Jesus' work in comparison to ours is that his work was flawless. His work was perfect because he, in fact, was perfection.  

Through prayer I have come to realize that in order to sanctify our lives and to prepare ourselves for whatever God is calling us to next, we need to work on perfecting our work as much as possible.  Not perfecting it for ourselves, but perfecting it so that it may honor God.  God is aware of our human nature, he knows that we are flawed and therefore the things we create will have flaws.  However, if we can aim for the perfection in order to bring praise to God (not ourselves) then we are sanctifying our lives.  God doesn't ask us for perfection, he asks us for holiness.  And by making our work an act of prayer, an act of sanctification, then we turn every moment into an opportunity for growth and holiness. May we alway orient ourselves to thank the One who created us!