I can remember feeling over my head a few times last year, just totally buried in work. The times I felt most exhausted weren't really when I had worked the hardest or been most physically exhausted, but when I felt like I was stuck. Moving closer to the "light at the end of the tunnel" is the source of my energy. I wonder if passion and energy are God's reward for authentic pursuits. Just being able to see light--or end goal--can be the biggest challenge, because we're forced to see meaning in whatever task we're doing -- no matter how mundane. If we can't see meaning or greater importance in what we're doing, what need have we for energy or inspiration? Step after step in a long staircase would be excruciating if we didn't know why we're climbing. Life's tasks are no different. Maybe the key to finding God in everyday steps is to find God in the staircase. Then our climb would have purpose.

This rings very true for me indeed. And yet, this is one of my biggest spiritual struggles: finding meaning in a job that very often feels like nothing more than a way to earn a paycheck--a way to be able to afford health insurance and life's other necessities. For various reasons, it isn't likely to be possible for me to seek more inherently meaningful work any time soon. So how do I find meaning, see the divine, discover holiness right where I am, where I spend 40+ hours every week, where so much of my daily energy is by necessity directed? I think it comes down to a question of mindfulness--of being able to let go of unmet expectations and undershot hopes and instead just be in each moment, doing whatever it calls for and trusting that God is in it with me. This seems so simple...but simplicity does not obviate great difficulty. So I keep praying that someday my work life and my spiritual life won't feel like they're happening on two different planets. And in the meantime, when I get an occasional glimpse of God at work in my 8-to-5 life, I am thankful for the sustenance. --Cindy