After graduating college and settling into a routine of working full time, I began to notice a void becoming ever-more present in my work life. I was just starting to take off on my quest to strengthen my faith, but I felt that for eight hours a day, God was lacking or absent from my life.
Now this is not to say that my workplace is a godless organization because it is really quite the opposite. Everyday I am surrounded by ardent believers of God who serve as shining examples of business leaders with strong ethical foundations.
So, since I did not need a change of scenery to fill this void in my life, I had to keep on searching. Now, I am the type of person who is still constantly trying to learn new things and build upon skills I already possess. Eager to expand on my professional skills, I purchased a book entitled Force for Good: The Catholic Guide to Business Integrity by Brian Engelland, not knowing that it held the first step I needed to take to reshape my work relationship with God.
Early on in the book, Engelland shares a quote from Pope Francis when he addressed the U.S. Congress saying that “Business is a noble vocation” (19). When I read that I was a little surprised and thought, whoa, let’s back this vocation train up; you’re trying to tell me that a career in business is esteemed enough to warrant the same terminology as that of priests and religious life? But, then I thought, who’s going to argue with the Pope? His statement certainly made me sit a little taller in my chair thinking that the Pope deemed my profession “noble!”
Engelland then goes on to explain that Pope Francis was referencing the 2012 Pontifical Council of Justice & Peace, which was a conference of sorts dedicated to the integral relationship between business leaders, ethical business leaders to be more exact, and God’s people. Essentially, good ethical businesses provide the goods and services that sustain us all, but also ethical businesses empower their employees and benefactors to reach their full potentials so they in turn can do the work God is calling them to do.
So, by thinking of my job in the service industry less as a job and more as an opportunity to serve God’s people, I gradually became more aware of God’s presence in my workplace. The daily tasks I performed gained more meaning when viewed in the context of service to God and those around me.
Taking this new mindset, I decided to push myself even further. I challenged myself to view each customer walking through the door of our office as someone whom God loves in the same way that I know He loves me. Well, I guess God got wind of this because He jumped in to help me out; I conversed with someone who directed words toward me that I would have to go to confession for repeating, I struggled to understand how someone would choose to spend his money buying cigarettes and not paying his bills, and I got a lesson in praying for someone who vocally persecuted me instead of harboring ill will towards her. Despite my grumblings about each of these people, God loves them and I have a calling to serve each of them to the best of my ability.
So what about you? How can you shift your mindset to realize how your vocation is calling you to serve God and His people? I learned that you do not have to look far to find God at work in your surroundings and even in yourself. Each person you encounter is worthy of love and he or she just may have a lesson to teach you.
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