Last week, we talked about the importance of the “just cause” or mission for our businesses. The same is true for each of us personally. We each need clarity of purpose for our vocation. In this episode of By Your Life we talk about how a clear mission, aligned priorities, and proper measures lead to our success.

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_07_07.mp3

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – July 7, 2019

Welcome to the sixty-seventh episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life. If you haven’t already, please sign up for notifications on Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Himalaya, or wherever you listen, or on the right side of this page so I can let you know when each new episode is posted.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life. If you know of someone who can benefit from By Your Life, I’d appreciate it if you’d forward to a co-worker or a friend.

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Luke tells the story about the seventy-two being appointed and sent. Jesus was very specific about what they were to take (or not take) with them, what they were to say, and what they were to do. They went off and did as he said.

I thought about the seventy-two being appointed. They were specifically chosen by Jesus for the job he had for them to do. There is something about this special call that makes me a little envious. There was no mistaking that they were chosen. There was no mistaking what the mission was. There was no mistaking what they were to do. So, they went. I’m envious of the clarity of it all. Looking back over my life, I wish I had such an unambiguous understanding of what God wanted of me. To this day, I still pray for this clarity.

Luke’s Gospel continues with what happened when the seventy-two returned from their mission. He said, they “returned rejoicing, and said, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.’” (Lk 10:17)

Have you ever had such great success at work that you went home rejoicing like the seventy-two did? As I reflect on my career, I’ve had many successes, but not one comes to mind where I can say that I went home rejoicing. I may have been happy about the success and momentarily celebrated it, but I don’t think you could say I rejoiced. I guess that is because every success was just a point along a road and usually meant there was more work to be done. If one of our new business plans was approved, the work was just getting started. If we signed a big contract that we’d been negotiating for months, we were just beginning the venture. If I retained a new client, the work with that client lay ahead of me. There was always more to do, so rejoicing just wasn’t my response. But I’m not sure that’s entirely the reason. I think it was that I lacked purpose.

Andreas Widmer, author of The Pope and the CEO and George Weigel, John Paul II’s biographer and author of the foreword to the book, point out that “life is vocational.” They both explain that the term “vocation” means much more than the dictionary definition of a career path, or line of work. It is more of a “calling” than a “job.” It is this distinction between “calling” and “job” that I am envious of.

For most of my career, I honestly didn’t give it a thought. Since graduating from college, I’ve always had a job, or more recently my own business. I accepted the opportunities that were made available to me and did what I thought was the best thing to do. It wasn’t until later in my career that I began to even consider whether this is what God has called me to do. I worked to make money and that was the purpose of my work.

In 1937, Napoleon Hill published Think and Grow Rich, a highly acclaimed “textbook” of his philosophy of success. While the author himself states, “Riches cannot always be measured in money!”, the lens through which I read the book, and the promise which is often made, is financial riches.

I first read Think and Grow Rich a couple years after starting my own business. Although I read it, I didn’t follow its instructions and, I didn’t grow “rich”. Years later, I read it again, and this time I was put off by the entire suggestion that making “riches” should be the motive of my work. Although I focused on the fact that “success” in Hill’s text could be defined anyway I wanted, I couldn’t get past that the principles were primarily presented to satisfy the goal of making money.

Why am I sharing this now and what does it have to do with this week’s readings? What happened to me between the first and second time I read Napoleon Hill’s book, was that I gained a greater clarity of my vocations, and more importantly, harmony between them. Let me explain.

In The Pope and the CEO, Andreas Widmer shares the wisdom he gained from working as a Swill Guard under St. John Paul II. He wrote, “Vocation is what God made you to do – your mission in life. It is also what you do for God. God gave you life, and now, by means of your vocation, you give it back to him.”

Widmer explains the three different levels of vocations; the universal, primary and secondary vocations. He wrote:

1. The universal vocation is the same for every human being on the planet: to know, love, and serve God in this life so that you can know, love, and serve Him eternally in the next life.
2. Your primary vocation is either married, dedicated single, priest, or religious. Each is a chosen gift of self and it is when we give ourselves most fully that we fulfill ourselves most effectively.
3. Your secondary vocation is how you use your gifts and talents in service to God and others. Our profession is integral to who we are as human beings. When we freely pursue the work for which we were made, and which our gifts, talents, nature, and circumstances suit, we discover who we really are.

Quoting St. John Paul II, he wrote, “Your vocation, understood, embraced, and lived is what makes you feel truly and fully alive.”

And the opposite is also true, without knowing, embracing and living your vocation, you’re never fully alive. Without fulfilling your purpose, you’ll certainly have no reason for rejoicing. The key is to find harmony in these vocations, lest they become competing priorities, pulling you in opposite directions, each demanding time from the other. When you understand the hierarchy of importance of all three levels of your vocation, it is much easier to honor all three.

One of the more interesting interviews I’ve done in my life was with John Morgan, about whom I wrote an article for TwoTen Magazine.  He had an unlikely career path: from Christian recording artist, to appliance salesman, to impersonator of the President of the United States.

John had an uncanny resemblance to George “Dubya” Bush. In 2003, a friend mentioned there was an industry of look-alikes and encouraged John to pursue a career as a George Bush impersonator.  John thought the idea was ridiculous, but at his wife’s encouragement, his heart opened just a little to the idea. Then came the real turning point.

John had the thought, “What if God made me look like George Bush because he wants me to do this?” That thought was a paradigm shift. He fasted, prayed and asked God straight up “Do you want me to become a George W. Bush impersonator?” He said, “the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart as clear as though it were audible and said ‘Yes!’” He knew God was indeed asking – commanding – him to do it.

How nice would it be if we could always hear God’s call so clearly as though it were audible! If we did, we’d likely not head off in the wrong direction creating chaos for ourselves, as we often do.

When John Morgan first launched his impersonator business, he thought it would be a strictly secular endeavor. It didn’t occur to him that there was any way it could be used for God’s purposes, but that was obviously what God had intended. Through his speaking engagements, he’s been able to share the Gospel all around the world, messages of motivation with companies, and inspiration at hospitals and schools. It has been an incredible opportunity to minister into the lives of other people.

For John, this was so unexpected, but not for God. In hindsight, John’s music career, his business, and sales experience, and his physical features were all God’s gifts to fulfill God’s purpose. God never gives us a task for which he doesn’t equip us.

Like John Morgan, I’ve been able to integrate my universal, primary and secondary vocations in a way I never thought possible. Through my second career as a business coach, working with my own coaches, and spiritual direction, I’ve grown, developed and gotten my priorities in the right order. I’ve also come to understand that work can be a holy thing and through work, we don’t simply make more; we become more, and we can help others become more too. Through our work, we can give glory to God when we become co-creators with Him.

But we need to be always wary of how we measure our success. In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus told his disciples, Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you but rejoice because your names are written in heaven. (Lk 10:20) And, in the second reading, St. Paul wrote, “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation.” (Gal 6:15) They are telling us that things that may be of great importance in this world are not really important.

So be wary of how you measure your success. We are bombarded with meaningless, earthly measures like dollars and cents, likes, clicks, hearts, retweets? I’m often tempted to look at the statistics for this podcast and judge my success based on the numbers of clicks and downloads. In the scheme of eternity, all of these are meaningless, and we know it.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, we do need these earthly measures. I’m not recommending that they be eliminated from our business practices. I still look at stats for my podcast and social media post, but as measures of effectiveness, not success. We need to measure what we are doing so that we can know if it is working and so we can continue to improve. I’m all for measures. My point is that we need to be wary of placing importance on the wrong measures. I’m reminded that if only one person benefits from my podcast each week, then I’ve been successful.

Bishop Barron often quotes St. Thomas Aquinas in pointing out that man often pursues wealth, honor, pleasure, and power and measures his success based on attainment of these temporal goals. The problem is, when we set a goal of a certain amount of money, once we achieve it, we want more. The same is true for honor, pleasure, and power—once achieved, we set our sights on more. We are never satisfied because these goals can never satisfy. This is why I never rejoiced over my success at work. It was not meaningful. Only a new creation has meaning. And St. Paul said, “Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule.”(Gal 6:16)

So, perhaps peace is the measure by which we should determine our success. Jesus instructed his disciples “Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.” (Lk 10:5-6) Peace was the measure.

Since we don’t always hear the call so clearly it is almost audible, we might also use peace as a means to confirm God’s call. When I have a decision to make, I often pray, “Lord, if this is the right thing to do, grant me peace, if not, let me be anxious.” If we have peace, we are on target. If not, perhaps things need adjusting. When we’re out of alignment, when our lives are in chaos, there will be no peace. We’ll know how well we are integrating and honoring all our vocations by the peace we experience in our lives.

One final and important thought. Jesus reminded his disciples that it was because of him, and not by their own strength, that they had, “the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy.” (Lk 10:19) In the Psalm, we sing praise to God for his mighty deeds. Over and over he repeats “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.” Let’s not forget who gets credit for all our success, however, we measure it. We should rejoice in God and his mighty deeds, and not in our success.

Let’s ask God to help us know and live our vocation so we use the talents he has given us to give him glory.

Lord, our God and loving Father, you have made us to know you, to love you, to serve you and to fulfill our deepest longings. We know there is a path, especially by which you want us to come to you. Since we will do what you want, we pray you send us your Holy Spirit: into our minds to know what you want of us; into our hearts to give us the determination to do it and to do it with all our love, with all our mind, and with all our strength right to the end.

May God bless you abundantly this week as you live your vocation and glorify him by your life.

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