Practices From the Inside Out: The Spiritual Life of Work

The Spiritual Life of Work

I live in a society which believes in the value of hard work and focused labor. We hear hard work is its own reward. People tell us the way to get what we want, no matter what it is, is through working as hard as we can. They tell us working hard and playing by the rules is the American Way.

What is the spiritual life of work? The financial, physical, and emotional results of working seem clear to us. We know we need to work hard in school and at our jobs. What is spiritual about that?

How does our work even fit into spiritual life?

It is easy for us to get used to understanding our lives as either/or. We become accustomed to choosing sides.

Our lives break down into different categories. We believe in disentangling our personal lives from our careers. Our behavior changes between spiritual life and how we act at work. It can be a challenge for us to recognize how the spiritual life of work could even be possible.

Even some of us who have spiritually oriented jobs see some things as spiritual and others as work.

What would it be like if we decided those categories and separate boxes were all just artificial? Would we approach work differently if it were filled with spiritual life? Could the spiritual life in us change the way we do our work? How would it affect our actions if we suddenly recognized the spiritual life of work?

Does the spiritual life within us affect our attitudes about our work?

I believe in the spiritual life of work. It becomes more and more challenging for me to find the line which divides work and spiritual life.

Recognizing the Spiritual Life of Work

Many of us start for a place in which we need to work to earn money. We approach work as a responsibility and a requirement.

Work is something we have to do, not something we get to do.

Some of us see work differently. We may approach work as a calling, a vocation. There are people who feel compelled to pursue a particular career or do a specific job as a spiritual responsibility. Their personal identity may become entwined with what they believe they are called to do. This is one possible aspect of the spiritual life of work.

I believe there are things we may be called to do, steps we are called to take. Not all those steps take the form of work or jobs. Discerning those kinds of callings can involve complex insights and reflection.

Other people see the spiritual life of work connected to the desires of our hearts. They believe spiritual life draws us into activity which gives us what we have always wanted in our deepest selves. The spiritual life of work, for them, is about putting our principles and beliefs into practice. We focus our contemplation not only on what we are called to do but also what will satisfy our true desires.

There are also people who believe we work to earn a living and support spiritual life within us. They see work as a means to an end. The work we do may also give us opportunities to use our gifts.

Each of us has our own understanding of the spiritual life of work. No single approach is better or more correct than another.

We are looking for our own way of understanding, not the only way to understand.

How do we practice the spiritual life of work?

Practicing the Spiritual Life of Work

Each year we celebrate labor by taking time away from work.

Our Labor Day Weekend festivities have become separated from the spiritual life of work. Labor Day has become a weekend filled with sales, hot dogs, the end of summer and going back to school.

Our first step into practicing the spiritual life of work can be spending this weekend doing something new.

We can take some time, it does not need to be a long time, to consider the spiritual life of work. It could be early in the morning or late in the evening. We might want to protect 20 or 30 minutes in our busy schedules to contemplate the spiritual life of work.

How has spiritual life shaped our work experience over the last year, or the last few months or weeks? What is the one way we would most like to put our values into practice at work during the next year? How would we most like the spiritual life of work to change us between now and Labor Day next year?

Does what we do at work each day fit with how we understand spiritual life? What would we like to change?

Can we practice the spiritual life of work more effectively beginning on Tuesday?

Exploring the Spiritual Life of Work

Our work is more than what we need to do to buy food, clothing, and shelter. A career is not limited to getting from here to there, completing projects, checking things off our lists.

We can begin now, this Labor Day, to explore the spiritual life of work in greater depth.

Deciding not to explore the spiritual life of work this week will not help us in the long run. Putting off the time we need for reflection does not serve us well.

Without the spiritual life of work our efforts do not create the meaning for which we are hungry. Our work becomes a series of tasks and responsibilities. We allow other people’s expectations to determine how we do our work.

The spiritual life of work integrates our lives and helps us find healthy balance. Our work becomes about more than how much we get paid.

How will we recognize the spiritual life of work in new ways this week?

When will we practice the spiritual life of work?

Where will we explore the spiritual life of work in more depth this month?

[Image by kelp]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.