We all are guilty of complacency from time to time. Complacency dulls us and we become satisfied with things as they are. “Good enough” becomes our motto and standard. In this week’s episode of By Your Life, we challenge you to avoid complacency and to stop following the easiest course that leads downhill.
Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2019/19_09_29.mp3
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 29, 2019
Welcome to the seventy-ninth 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, and if you know of someone who can benefit from By Your Life, tag them, share it, like it.
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.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. I find it interesting to contrast this Sunday’s readings with the last two Sundays’ where we heard of a merciful God who gives second chances. But this week, we are warned that the day will come when we are held accountable for our choices, for what we have done, and what we have failed to do. The question is, will we heed the warning?
In the first reading, the prophet Amos said, “Thus says the LORD the God of hosts: Woe to those who are complacent in Zion!” (Am 6:1) I usually sit up and listen when the “Woe to you” statements are proclaimed. It is usually a time to do a little self-reflection so I’m not on the receiving end of the “woe”. So, I am being complacent? What about you?
Episode 36 of By Your Life was about Combating Complacency, but the point was about staying vigilant. That isn’t the warning against complacency the prophet Amos is sharing this week. Instead of staying vigilant, Amos is encouraging us to be aware that we don’t slide into a sense of self-satisfaction, all the while ignoring those around us who are in need.
Most of us like to think that we are generous people. We donate to our parish and diocese, charities, and the kid down the street selling something for his/her organization. Some of us donate our time to these as well. All of this is good. All of this is what we are called to do. The question is, are we pleased with ourselves for doing these things? Merriam-Webster says, “the literal meaning of complacency’s Latin root is ‘very pleased,’ and even though complacent people may seem pleased with themselves, we are rarely pleased with them.” And if you listen to Sunday’s first reading, God is not pleased with them either.
So, again I ask, are you and I complacent? Probably yes and no.
The thing about being complacent, we rarely realize that we are. It is “an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction.” I read somewhere that “The shame is not in complacency but in the failure to recognize it and take corrective measures.” In fact, as someone else said, “You become complacent the minute you think you’re not.”
You become complacent the minute you think you’re not. #complacent #leadership #wisdomHow does complacency play out at work? Well, have you ever worked for or with someone who was indifferent to the plight of others like the people Amos warns against? I did. Years ago, my division was sold to equity investors led by one primary investor who took over as our CEO. At the time, I was traveling overseas quite often and anyone who has done it knows business travel is far from a vacation. An airplane seat is your bed. The only sights you see are from the window in a conference room. The workday extends to cover your home and visited time zones and just when you recover from jetlag—if you recover—you’re back on a plane and setting your clock back to your home time.
As you can probably imagine, the investors bought our company with the intent to drive out costs and take it public. Driving out costs meant that when we participated in international industry conferences and tradeshows, we flew coach and shared a modest studio apartment, instead of flying business class and staying in a private room in a hotel. At the same time, our CEO flew to Europe in his private jet that the company paid for and stayed at the Ritz Carlton. I didn’t care about that so much because he worked hard, took risks, and invested his own money in the company, so he was entitled to spend it as he wished. However, I lost respect for him when he complained to us about how small the rooms were at the Ritz. Poor guy! In the meantime, we were stomping cockroaches in our little studio apartment, but he didn’t care about that and I didn’t care about working my tail off for his company. I left shortly after.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) is straight forward about what happens when the wealthy are held accountable for what they received in their lifetime. The Catholic Church teaches that wealth in itself is morally neutral. However, riches are a source of evil when used to satisfy greed and separate the heart from love of God and neighbor. Those blessed with an abundance of material resources are especially obligated to assist those less fortunate. Dr. Scott Hahn explains that “The rich and powerful are visited with woe and exile not for their wealth, but for their refusal to share it; not for their power, but for their indifference to the suffering at their door.”
In our second reading, St. Paul encourages Timothy and he is encouraging us too when he said, “You, man of God, avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called.” (1 Tim 6:11-12) He is calling us to make a conscious choice, a much better choice than being in unaware and uninformed self-satisfaction.
So, which type of CEO earns your respect, the one I used to work for, or one who pursues righteousness as St. Paul described? Are you more motivated to work for someone whose motive is short-term financial results or someone who is focused on eternal life? More importantly, which type of leader are you? Is it possible to achieve positive financial results on the path to eternal life? I believe it is. Treat people well and they will work hard for you. Work for a purpose that is greater than your personal profitability and your employees will help you achieve that purpose.
We most likely would never be as self-centered as my former CEO or could we? A few years ago, I was invited to Colombia to speak to a group at the Chamber of Commerce in Cartagena. While there, I stayed with some long-time family friends. As is common, my friends had a couple of women who cooked and cleaned their home. I thought to myself how I’d really like to have someone to do those chores for me. How much easier my life would be if I had fulltime help to cook and clean. So, I said to one of the women, “Oh, how I’d like to take you home with me!” It was an innocent comment but when I saw how her face lit up when she said how she’d love to go back to the US with me, I realized how insensitive I had been. I selfishly wanted someone to do these things so I didn’t have to, and she would have been thrilled to have the opportunity to do it. Although I’m far from rich, I was like the rich man in Sunday’s Gospel and she, like Lazarus “would gladly have eaten [her] fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.” (Lk 16:21) I was more preoccupied with myself and my wants that I was insensitive to someone who had so much less that they’d gladly have taken my “scraps.”
When I shared this with my confessor, he said, “Lisa, you didn’t really do anything wrong. If you would have brought this person back with you, you would have paid her a fair wage to work for you.” But that wasn’t the point. The point was where my heart was. I wasn’t looking to offer her an opportunity to improve her life, which is what my friends had provided her. Instead, I looked at this person as someone who could improve my life. It was all about me.
What about you? How do you view others in your home or at work? Are they people with needs of their own or instruments to satisfy your needs? Do you look to provide them the opportunity to meet their goals or do you view them as obstacles to achieving yours? Check the attitude of your heart. Where is your priority?
I worked with another CEO who successfully took the small family business that his father founded to the next level. He was on the right side of technological innovation and the company rode the wave to profitable growth. The problem for my client was a lack of motivation. He wasn’t having fun anymore. He had always been driven by personal wealth but had gotten to the point where he didn’t need another house, another car, and he didn’t have time to take another vacation. Through the work we did together, he discovered that his business didn’t exist to enrich him, rather, he was entrusted with this business to provide an opportunity for his 80 employees to grow and develop and have a better life. Realizing this provided him with motivation to continue to lead the company and pursue profitable growth, not for himself, but for all the people who God had entrusted to him as his employees.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “True happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement—however beneficial it may be—but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love.” (CCC 1723) Complacency holds us back from the source of every good and of all love, and this is a tragedy.
The tragedy of life is not in failure, but in #complacency; not in doing too much but doing too little; not in living above our ability, but in living below our capacities. ~ Benjamin E. MaysAs Benjamin E. Mays said, “The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.” When we are complacent, when we are self-satisfied, we are living below our capacity. Woe to us when we do. We will never be truly happy. Worse than that, as business guru, Jeremy Gutsche said, “Complacency will be the architect of your downfall.”, and this is the warning in our Gospel reading this week.
Complacency will be the architect of your downfall. ~ Jeremy Gutsche #complacency #leadership #wisdomComplacency dulls us and we become satisfied with things as they are. Then, we reject taking steps to make things better. “Good enough” becomes our motto and standard. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course – downhill. And this is the danger of complacency. None of us wakes up in the morning and thinks, “Today, I’m going to just be complacent.” Instead, we kind of just end up there because we didn’t choose not to be complacent. As a result, days pass and instead of getting done what we should, we just allow stuff to happen.
No one says, today I’m going to be complacent. We just end up there because we didn’t choose NOT to be complacent.A couple of months ago, my aunt passed away and we all went to Atlanta for her funeral. After being gone for several days, I had a lot of catching up to do. One of the things I’d let go was scheduling the payment of my credit card bill. When I woke up on the 18th of the month and saw that date on the calendar, I remembered that I never scheduled the payment. I immediately went online to pay the bill, but I was late. I meant to pay it on time, but I didn’t and so I had to pay the penalty.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) warns us that our life is like this. It doesn’t matter how good our intentions are; it doesn’t matter that we are busy with other things; it doesn’t matter if we plan to get around to doing what we are supposed to do; when our eternal due date comes, we will be held accountable. Eventually, time will run out and you and I will be held accountable for our life’s choices. Jesus warns us of the eternal downfall that awaits us if we ignore the needs of those around us.
What is it going to take to awaken us? Our God is a merciful God who does extend mercy and offers repeated opportunities to repent and make things right. But when we are complacent, we aren’t even aware that we are because we are wallowing in self-satisfaction. We aren’t aware that we are headed toward destruction. Why doesn’t somebody warn us?
Somebody has. Let’s not be the ones of whom Abraham spoke when he said, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” (Lk 16:31)
This week be aware and beware of the choices you make. Let us ask God our Father to help us overcome complacency through the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to know the Truth more and more each day and allow it to free us from pretense, from ego, and from self-satisfaction. Awaken us to the needs of others and empower us to compete well for the faith, so that we may glorify the Lord by our lives.
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