Monday Morning Meditation #101: Not By Our Hand

Reading through the book of Daniel, I simply had to stop at the powerful dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Personally, I never remember my dreams, but I do doubt that any of them have been prophetic ones although I do know that God, over the centuries, has communicated with people through dreams (seemingly far more often than through locutions, which is my more common, although rare, experience). So it is even more fascinating for me to read about a dream as highly prophetic -- and initially difficult to understand -- as Nebuchadnezzar's. Here is the dream, as reported to Daniel by King Nebuchadnezzar:

"I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it the wild animals found shelter, and the birds lived in its branches; from it every creature was fed.

In the visions I saw while lying in bed, I looked, and there before me was a holy one, a messenger,coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice: ‘Cut down the tree and trim off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground, in the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. 16 Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.

The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people."

Reading on, one finds Daniel's interpretation of this dream. King Nebuchadnezzar was the tree. He had become powerful. More important (or more distressing), he had become proud that his kingdom extended so far in all directions, and he did not glorify God adequately for this but held some of the praise within for himself. So, God's plan was to humble him by sending him out into the fields to live with the wild animals like an animal until such time that his pride was relinquished and he knew the overwhelming power of the Lord.

And this is precisely what befell Nebuchadnezzar. He found himself living among the animals until he had been humbled, after which his royal entourage found him and returned him to his throne, a humbled and grateful man.

Reading: Daniel 4

Meditation: This dream of Nebuchadnezzar hit home for me. I have often felt -- and said -- that it is difficult to integrate worldly success with spiritual humility. Possible with the help of God, yes, but, oh, so difficult because it is so tempting to assume that one is a "self-made person" and that one can go it alone. After all, in American society, at least, we encourage people to move up the ladder, so to speak, and we praise self-made people. Being motivated by the rung of the ladder and the praise of men, however, take us far from those fields of wild animals where God would have us understand who is great and who is small, who is important and who is not, who is to be glorified and who is to do the glorifying.

On a daily basis, this is brought home to me. As a very senior manager, even though I am in a position where God intended me to be, I have moments of assuming that I can personally make decisions -- and, my goodness, those decisions are almost always flawed in some way, or if not flawed, then not nearly as insightful and good as they could be. On the other hand, when I do take these to God in prayer before jumping to some human conclusion and when I do give credit to its rightful Belonger, that is, when I do realize who is in charge and how little I personally contribute, then things work out amazingly well, better than anything I could possible plan or enact.

Some time ago, I wrote a couple of posts about the price of success and how my division would be dismantled in two years, with me reporting to a new person brought in as a layer between me and the highest level of management to whom I now report. With God's help, I had put aside all concern about that plan, not without great effort at subduing the pride that said, "hey, I created this success, let me have it; don't pass it along to someone who did nothing for it." God showed me, though, that this was not the right attitude, and with some help from God -- an evening walk here and there, a prayer now and then, I was able to reconcile myself to reality and eventuality. However, over the next two years, things have changed, and the plan has been scrapped. So, too, has been my undue pride. So, while the threatened intermediary never showed up to change my status in the human world, God changed it in the spiritual world. I have found that I like it better that way -- and if some intermediary ever does show up (looks pretty doubtful given the current economic climate), it won't matter because anything I have created was with the help of God, supervisors and employees. I would very much hesitate now to take credit for any of it. I prefer instead to join Nebuchadnezzar in glorifying God.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to praise God for all the reasons I have to glorify Him. I will thank God for His lessons, and I will ask forgiveness for those times that I have been slow to learn them. I will also ask God to continue to give me those lessons in humility that I so much need. Then I will move on to contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

7 Quick Takes Friday #62

See more 7 Quick Takes Friday contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

It is hard to believe that a whole week has passed, but it has. Now I sit on the sofa, as I do nearly every Friday night, with Murjan, my cat who refuses to be more than a few inches from me whenever I am home, beside me and my computer on my lap, the television running in the background. My, but we are creatures of habit even when we have irregular work lives! (Or, at least, I am.)

1. Surprise! Last Friday night as I finished up 7 Quick Takes, I was surprised by a knock at the door. It was a mother-daughter duo from our prayer group. They had just finished an evening of the rosary routinely said by a group from the Spanish Mass. (I attend the Spanish Mass at times, but the rosary group is a little challenging for my uneven Spanish skills -- reading, writing, and listening are no problem, but speaking is generally accomplished with some effort.) Lupe and Rosa, Donnie and I spent the next couple of hours, sitting on our deck as the sun dove behind the mountains and house and disappeared. I don't get much chance to just be lazy with friends, so it was a real treat.

2. On Saturday afternoon, I walked back out onto the deck again, having spent the morning cowering in the house while the sun beat down at the level of 110 degrees. Little worked for cooling off. Ice cream melted before I could get it into the bowl. So, I sat in front of the fan and spent my "found time" reading, another activity I don't get to do often enough. When I finally made it outside, I noticed that the large, 3-wick candle we had placed on the table on the deck was a molten pool with three wicks floating in it. Now, that's hot!

3. Sunday was just as hot, so once again we cowered inside during the day. After evening Mass with Doah, we were sopping wet with sweat because the air conditioning in the church we attended in Doah's nearby city had stopped working. (Our mission church has no air conditioning and needs none; it was built in the days when people knew how to make buildings that stay cool or warm based on their structure.) Feeling a real pull, therefore, toward an air-conditioned location, we decided to watch a movie. We chose Super Eight, a rather interesting science fiction flick. Ah, the wonderful feeling of cool air! When we walked out of the theater in the late evening, we were greeted by -- cool air! Yes!

4. On the Fourth of July, Shane and Lemony came over for a BBQ. It is always wonderful to see the grandkids, Nathaniel and Nikolina, especially since they both had problems at birth that required much medical care. Nathaniel will be out of the woods entirely in three years, and while Nikolina may never have all the internal organs that others have, she is doing very well: at age two, no one can tell from looking at her or watching her that she has any abnormalities at all. At the end of the day, we sat on our deck, high up on our hill, and watched the fireworks from our little town and from the nearby city. A satisfying end to a satisfying day!

5. Work, crazy work! That is all I can say about the rest of the week. I never even made it to my office on Tuesday and Wednesday. I had so many meetings in the headquarters building that by the time I was done, the day was also done. Thursday and Friday I was in my office, but for some reason every single appointment or meeting began late. The meetings this week, unlike the typical boredom I have to put up with, were fascinating, even if I did arrive late to every single one of them. As I explained to my secretary, the logistics of the days were totally out of kilter but the content of my days was marvelous.

6. Because of not making it into my office on Tuesday and Wednesday, I ended up working very late into the evening on Thursday, catching up. One of the last things I did was get into a discussion with one of the senior managers about the topic of humility (long story as to why that topic, related to one of his employees), and he told me about a Tolstoy story on the topic that he loves: "Otets Sergij" (Father Sergius). We spent a couple of minutes tracking it down on line, and he forwarded the URL to me. All the way home, I looked forward to sitting down with a cup of tea or can of tonic (soda to those not from New England and pop to those from the Pittsburgh area) and, relaxing, read the story. Alas, when I opened my computer to go to the URL, I found a note from someone I work with, reminding me a about a report due the next day, about which I had forgotten. With sinking hopes of a relaxing end to the almost-over evening, I sat down to write the report, then I decided to rebel. Enough is enough! I went to bed. For the first time in a long time, I got a full seven hours of sleep and woke up feeling pampered this morning!

7. NASA. As I sit here, reflecting on this week's high moments (well, the salient moments; they are not always "high"), I am simultaneously watching the history of NASA's shuttle from first flight to today's final flight on a show called "When We Left Earth." Seeing the faces of the astronauts and cosmonauts, and especially hearing their voices, is a treat and a sadness. I worked with many of them a decade ago, both on their Houston campus and in Star City, Russia, and one of the astronauts invited me, together with his family, to a private viewing of his launch from Cape Kennedy. Among these memories is the sad one of the disintegration of the Columbia over Texas. On that shuttle were four of my former colleague. To this day, I remember vividly what happened because one of the photos in my office, given to me when I left NASA, was a view from space, signed by the astronauts and cosmonauts with whom I worked, among them Rick Husband, the commander of the Columbia. Every day, I see his signature. It is impossible for me to forget this tragedy.

Well, I did not mean to end on a somber note. Let's all look forward to a joyful weekend!

Today's Mess

Just when I begin to take God at work for granted and, even worse, begin to think that I myself am contributing to the harmonious work climate, God shows me who really is in charge of my office. Those reminders always vividly, even dramatically, take me aback.

On Thursday, I had to transfer an employee to another directorate. Since most employees do not want to transfer out of my division (this is a good thing), I usually am the one to deliver them the bad news. Most express concern. Some express resistance, but, of course, must accept the transfer because the good of the organization is the factor that weighs the strongest. Health is the most frequent reason for transferring individuals out of my division since all my employees must be able to travel internationally.

So, given a situation where an employee had developed some serious health problems, the program manager had made the decision to transfer him to a division doing similar work but not requiring travel. This looked to be an open-and-shut case. The employee did not want to travel and would not sign the annual paperwork, agreeing to travel. No need to pray about this one! Piece of cake! When I met together with the employee and program manager, however, the employee became hostile, demanded that we grant him an exception to policy (which is never done because it would open a Pandora’s box of many people wanting exceptions and we would not have enough travelers to accomplish our work), and implied that he had documents that he had retained on both of us that would make us do whatever he wanted us to do.

Later in the day, he brought a sealed envelope to my secretary. In it was a copy of some personnel correspondence I had had with another employee that, on the surface and out of context, could definitely be misconstrued. He had gotten the file when the other employee’s computer had been broken and the two employees had shared one computer. The correspondence, which was innocent enough but out of context could look embarrassing since it discussed religious issues in personal ways, had been left accidentally on the shared computer. The employee in question, seemingly a docile individual, had retained that correspondence for nearly five years, apparently holding it for a time that he could use it to compel me to do something that he wanted to have done, and the time had come. Blackmail!

The employee had miscalculated. As a rugged individualist from New England, to use Emerson’s archetypal image, I do not accept blackmail. In fact, had I been wavering about perhaps granting an exception, the attempted blackmail sealed the fate of the individual in question: he will be transferred without delay.

Since blackmail is a felony both under US law and under California law, punishable in both cases by heavy fines and imprisonment, I am now confronted with a difficult decision: to prosecute or not prosecute. Employees who blackmail employers under California law generally lose their jobs. The same might happen if I share the situation with our human resources people, which I may have to do for more than one reason, e.g., any potential long-term, post-transfer ramifications, including the possibility that once transferred the employee will release the document to colleagues and my supervisory chain. If I do not share the information with our personnel and legal team, I may end up having lost the opportunity for defense later, but the employee, who is elderly, in poor health, and responsible for a family with serious medical problems, will not lose a job he desperately needs and the salary for which he cannot replicate. Do I take the risk of ultimate professional damage or does the employee get hurt deeply and immediately? Obviously, now God has a more difficult problem to solve for me!

This all happened because I, too, had miscalculated. Even in seemingly small things and things that seem to be life as usual with no difficulties anticipated, I do need God’s help and presence. Not praying about all of it is arrogance. Thinking I can handle any part of it is perfect evidence of that lack of humility and my continuing need to develop more, i.e. a continuing need for continuing conversion.

(Oh, by the way, prayers are welcomed!)

A Simple Man

On Monday, I was supposed to be in court in Maryland to testify in a case brought against one of my supervisees in that area. On Monday, I was also supposed to attend the funeral of a friend who died unexpectedly, leaving all of us who knew him in shock. I talked to our organization's lawyer, and he was able to convince the judge to let me testify first thing Tuesday morning, so I was able to attend the funeral AND testify. Of course, my Monday night sleep took place exclusively on the red-eye from Los Angeles to Dulles International Airport.

There were several things I remembered, we all remembered, about my friend, Jack. The most important was that he was a simple man.

Earlier this year, he celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary. He and Ruby did not have much money, so celebrating the wedding anniversary in style was out of the question. Instead, they came to the Bible Studies group that he leads, the meeting of which that week fell on their anniversary. Knowing about the anniversary, I brought Middle Eastern food, which Jack loved, and others brought drinks and desserts. Jack was surprised and pleased -- even more so when I serendipitously ran into Fr. Ed, who had been working late, and he came by to join in the celebration.

Jack affected many others with his simplicity. A retired engineer, he hobbied in history. The level of his knowledge brought learning to all of his group, including those well versed in Biblical studies, like Sr. Maria, and those new to Biblical studies, like me.

Jack was the one I often went to when I ran into "oddities" within the church or among church members, such as the situation with the secular Franciscans that I discussed on my Modern Mysticism blog some time ago (see Tasked). Jack was also the only other lost lamb I had ever met personally who had, like me, experienced a hierophany that brought him, also kicking and screaming, back into the flock. (For those who have not yet read the story of what happened to me, you can find it on my Clan of Mahlou blog: My Conversion Story.)

In addition to the Bible Studies teaching and studying, Jack spent most of his time taking care of Ruby, who has many physical problems, including being restricted to a wheelchair much of the time. Jack never complained. He loved taking care of Ruby. He also had a child who was accidentally shot by a neighbor's child. Jack's son lived, and he never took anyone to court. "It was an accident," he said. Jack's granddaughter was killed in an car accident three years ago. Jack did not bewail his fate. "It was an accident," he once again said. He trusted God, and he knew that some things are, indeed, accidents.

Jack had one wish, not a strong one, but a wish nonetheless. He wanted to go to Jordan to see all those historical places he had studied. I planned to take him there, but he quietly slipped away in his sleep before we could make that wish come true. Somehow, I think Jack would simply say, "It was not meant to be," with full acceptance of the lot life offered him.

Jack was the epitome of humility. His life served as an example to all of us in his class. In Bible Study, he speak with a soft voice such that one had to be quiet and listen attentively. Somehow, it gave his words greater weight.

Jack's funeral was also simple, followed by a reception pieced together by the nuns in our local convent and some of us parishioners. Two priests celebrated the Mass at Old Mission: Fr. Ed, the pastor here, and Fr. Phillip, who came down from the St. Francis Retreat Center. (I say "came down" because the retreat center sits on a hill on the edge of town.)

I was honored to be able to write and read the prayers of the faithful to a full church. Simple people seem to gather more friends than do more complicated types. As I passed back to my pew, Ruby whispered to me how much she liked the prayers, so I handed her the sheet from which I had read the following, which represent a couple of the intentions.

That our friend Ruby, buoyed by gratitude for 50 joyful years together with Jack, be blessed with renewed vigor and self-confidence and pass through this valley with increased faith, hope, and love.

That Jack’s entire family be comforted in its grief and find consolation and peace of mind through today’s Mass, the support of friends in the weeks to come, and the influence of the same deep and abiding faith so frequently expressed by Jack.

In keeping with Jack’s personal example of humility and love, that all people put aside their personal grievances, anger, and prejudices in order to help others and serve God. We pray to the Lord.

Jack was Ruby's ever-present human angel in life. He will be her ever-more-present heavenly angel in death. With simple people, you can count on things simply to continue.

(Note: I have no pictures of Jack or of his funeral. I have only my memories. So, I selected a picture of a simple bouquet of flowers from the Internet. It seemed appropriate.)

Work and Spirituality

I read a post today on Catholic Spiritual Direction, a wonderful blog, listed on my blogroll in the right sidebar, to which I would refer anyone interested in very insightful posts on living a godly life in today's world. The question a reader had posed was "how do I deal with issues of advancement and self-promotion at work?" The answer was splendid, and I suggest you wander over there to read it.

I have often commented on work issues on 100th Lamb, and its predecessor blog, Blest Atheist. As with anything else, if one lets go and lets God, as the saying goes, work goes better. One does not need to tout one's accomplishments. God will ensure that they become known and noticed when that is important, and otherwise it is not important. Among the things that I have noticed when it comes to inviting God to take over my work life are the following (far from a full litany of benefits and blessings):

(1) Servant leaders become powerful leaders even though that is not their intention. Jesus showed us the way to be good servant leaders when he washed the feet of his disciples. I ask of those managers who work for me that they think constantly of when the feet of their employees need washing and to tend to that task with alacrity. Recently, a would-be leader who had run into some complications with his team members asked me as someone he considers his mentor how to handle the situation, and I told him he needed more humility, to throw his inflated ego in the trash because it was doing him no good, and forgive those who were creating problems for him. Oh, he found that hard, but he tried all of it. He even sent me a self-learning plan for developing humility, at which point I called him to my office to explain that one does not achieve humility; humility simply comes as a result of something that is so easy that is almost impossible for some people: always put others first. Others can say whether or not our actions are examples of our humility; we cannot begin to measure our own level of humility without being arrogant about it. A strange characteristic this humility! But so desirable!

(2) Power grows the more you give it away. This fact is one of the most counter-intuitive realities with which immature managers must cope. Most new managers want to hang onto power. They want their employees to defer to them, even sometimes to call them "sir" and "ma'am." They want overt respect. As a result, they get the titles, the overt behavior, and the public respect. What they don't get is the implicit respect that is not demanded but freely given, the love and support that comes with it, and the willingness to go the extra nine or ninety yards, as needed. I am tickled pink with employees who point out some shortcoming or inconsistency in my behavior. It means that we are working as a team, and teams are more powerful than individuals. I also notice that when both responsibility and authority are delegated to them, employees are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the tasking. In turn, if the manager asks them to do something that they would prefer not to do, they do it anyway, without grumbling, because of the bond between them. That is real power. The power that comes with position is multiplied a thousandfold when it is bestowed upon a manager not by his/her superiors but by his/her subordinates.

(3) Dealing with difficult people becomes easy, fun, and rewarding. I have said it often, and I truly mean it. I love difficult people. They are my greatest reward for being a manager. Watching a disaffected employee become a contributing team member produces one of the warmest fuzzies that any manager could ever want. I have very few difficult people among the 400 or so who work for me although four years ago when I began this position the division was considered riddled with difficult people. Now the division is called the "black hole" of our organization by the EEO office and by the Union because even people who used to practically live in those places, complaining about their supervisors and work conditions, no longer visit. They are happy contributors to their teams' work. Once a senior manager, who no longer works for me, asked how to deal with difficult people. I told him that the key was so simple that most managers won't use it: genuinely love them. He told me sorrowfully that he could not do that and not long after resigned. I replaced him with someone who could do that, and the 30 or more chronic complainers in that particular subdivision now appear in the corridors and at group meetings with big smiles. When the new manager first appeared, many stopped me in the hallway to thank me for the change in leadership. Now when they are unhappy about work conditions, they do not run to the Union or the EEO officials for help; they come to their supervisor.

(4) The workplace becomes a place of worship as well, a place where people are inexorably drawn and from which they do not wish to depart. Many a night I have chased people home with the words, "we work to live; we don't live to work." Actually, it is not the living to work that compels people to stay in the office after hours. It is the palpable presence of God in our workplace. Who would want to leave that? Once I had a manpower team from headquarters visit for a week for the purpose of determining staffing needs -- were we understaffed (yep), overstaffed (nope), or staffed just right (not that, either). After spending a week of visiting and talking to employees, during which the visitors had open access to everyone, thanks to a building schematic and names/titles of employees that I gave them with the invitation to go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted and talk to whomever they wanted. They did. The head of the visiting team came to my office at the end of the week, ostensibly, I thought, to talk to me about staffing levels. Instead, she told me that she wanted to talk about the atmosphere in the work place. "I have read about places like this," she said, "but I have never actually seen one -- where people love to come to work, support each other, and willingly remain to make sure that all tasks are completed and everything is ready for the next day. I wish I could work here." There is nothing to my credit in what she found. Rather, that is what happens when one lets God into the workplace.

(5) Moreover, once God is in the workplace, God does what God does best. Miracles happen. Chestnuts get pulled out of the fire by unseen hands. Cutting-edge and seemingly-impossible-because-no-one-has-ever-done-it-before work gets done with amazing ease. Where task and mission require, 48 hours of work finishes itself in eight hours. Pride in the accomplishment of the division and not in the accomplishments of individuals appears; employees give credit to each other, supervisors to employees, and employees to supervisors. People talk about God and even pray together -- in an institution where separation of Church and State is the norm, the expected, the required. The most amazing, though, are the real miracles. We have had several people literally on the brink of death who have reappeared in our midst. I have blogged before about some of them, among these being Jackie, who ended up with a blog clot in her lung and comatose after surgery but survived and will be returning to work, and Tareq, an Iraqi immigrant to the United States who suffered from cancer and heart failure and did eventually die but not before a miraculous post-surgery recovery that gave him an additional year at work and at home, a year he desperately needed to put his family matters straight and save the life of his son who had to be rescued from Iraq when he was personally targeted by insurgents. For all these people, we have had employees of several faiths praying together, our own little ecumenical world, where religious flavor and fervor come second and God and each other come first.

Well, this is not at all the post I had planned to write today, but the writing of it took on a life of its own, inspired by my reading of Fr. Todd's response to the questioner on Catholic Spiritual Direction, and here it now is. So, I shall post it. Tomorrow I will post what I had planned to put up today.

(Note: I know that the image is not entirely appropriate, but it is also not entirely inappropriate. I found it on the web and could not resist including it!)

Monday Morning Meditation #53: What Is Man That God Should Be Mindful of Him?

This week I began to read the Psalms. What joy! I love the Psalms! Is there anyone who does not? The first few psalms were ones of anguish, with David being pursued by enemies and asking for God to help and protect him. Then, in Psalm 8, David gives praise to the Lord, and after that, he asks a very interesting question, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" Indeed, what is man that God is mindful of him?

Reading: Psalm 8

Meditation: In recent days, I have been blogging a bit about humility. This probably comes in great part from discussions on humility I have been having at work with employees whom I mentor and whose lack of humility is getting in the way of their promotability. Hubris wins no friends and builds no teams. Yes, there are hubristic managers -- and hubristic employees, but the pride is false, built on a crumbling foundation of overblown self-perception. Those who stand on that "unfoundation" are more likely than not to fall.

So where does the need to put ourselves first come from? Why do we want to be the first in line? Why do we want to rise to the top at the office or in our profession? Why must our children be better than our friends' children? Why do we become defensive when someone criticizes us? And where does our relationship with God fit in all of this jockeying for position? Who, indeed, are we that God should be mindful of us?

He has given us two great commandments: love Him and love each other. Neither gives us a basis or need for pushing ourselves past others. We don't have to earn God's love; we already have it. We don't have to prove ourselves in order to receive God's grace; He gives it without our even asking for it.

God exhorts us to be humble, to be meek, to put others first. He gave us an extraordinary example: Himself. (I highly recommend Ilia Delio's book, The Humility of God.) While the possibility of our emulating His example at any deep level is highly unlikely, the possibility of His leading us to the level of humility of which we are capable is very likely -- if only we allow Him to take over and eliminate the unholy parts of our ego.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for being mindful of us, to praise Him for His wonderful and unemulatable example of humility, to repent for any time that pride has tained my relations, especially my relationship with Him, and to ask Him to peel off all my layers of pride and leave my ego bare, devoid of any build-up to to deter my ability to be a good servant to my colleagues, my employees, my family, my friends, and God. Then I will spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves, knowing that I could have no better Protector.

I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

7 Quick Takes Friday #37

See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.

This week seemed to sort itself into themes. Here are seven of them:

1. Reading short things. I did not read any novels this week, but I read many short things, starting with Mass last Friday. There were two readings, a long one and a short one, and I had to choose on the spot which one to read because the regular reader was absent, in which case I often end up reading but without preparation. I chose the short one. Fr. Thomas had prepared his homily based on the long one! He adjusted! Then I gave away the most recent translation of one of my favorite Persian poets, Rumi, the original whirling dervish. His poetry is delightful, and I was able to read most of the new collection before handing the book over to a visiting employee from our Georgia office. I had told this employee, who hails from Iran, that I had recently acquired this book, and when I saw him salivating over that information, I offered to loan him the book. When he arrived earlier this week, he asked if the offer was still good. It was, and he got the book. I told him I would pick it up next year when I am scheduled to once again go to Georgia, but if he keeps the book, that is fine. The poems were short; I have read most of them. Then there were memoes, articles, concepts of operation, proposals, reports -- for some reason, many more than usual this week. Some non-critical ones, in fact, are still in my email for next week! I probably did read a novel this week if you put together all the paperwork and all the topics within them; in fact, it would have been quite an engaging novel!

2. Love. Love flooded this week, beginning with Mass on Saturday. I walked in just seconds before Mass was to start. Everyone was lined up to proceed down the aisle; they were just waiting for the song to be announced. I slipped in the side down and walked to the back of the church to pick up a song book. Fr. E caught the movement, got out of line, met me partway, hugged me (as he would have anyone walking through the door at that moment), then returned to the line-up. At the back of the church were three of my catechism students, deciding where they would sit. Hugs all around! Then, as I made my way to the pew where I usually sit, several people reached out and squeezed my hand as I passed. That is why I am devoted to Old Mission and to San Ignatio. The town swims in love.

3. Humility. One does not usually talk about humility with one's employees. Work performance, sure. Achievement, certainly. Development, yes. Needs, you bet. Skills, yep. Family matters, yeah, sometimes. Humility? Now that's not your everyday boss to supervisee topic, but it was an important one this week. Since it is a rather long story and I already posted the details on Modern Mysticism, I will let you go there if you wish to read all about it: Humility.

4. Caring. Another topic I became involved with that I blogged about earlier this week is the situation in Pakistan and the efforts of an acquaintance of mine in Karachi to help her fellow countrymen, along with the details of how we can help her if there is interest in doing so. Details are here: Come Along on a Journey to Help Pakistan One Family at a Time.

5. Fellowship and fun. Where can greater fellowship and fun be found than at a pizza party? A dozen employees from six different regional offices came to town for some training from an exceptionally famous guru. I grabbed them over lunch to reacquaint myself with them and their concerns, share recent developments here locally, and bond a little. For bonding, we needed some "glue," so I ordered pizza. Just the thing! By the end of the noon hour, there was a considerable amount of camaraderie, which was especially delightful because some of the individuals had never met, e.g., those working in Hawaii and those working in Georgia or Maryland. Great fun, smack in the middle of the week!

6. Trust. One successful way I have found to build bonds, team spirit, and trust is an annual reverse evaluation. I recently asked some outside experts to evaluate our evaluation. In telling my employees about this, they pointed out how much trust has developed from the reverse evaluation, so much that perhaps it is no longer needed in the way it was earlier. People feel free just to send critiques and concerns directly to me or to their managers through the email with their names attached. Of course, we will continue the reverse evaluation. It is one of the primary tools that has changed my workplace in a mere four years from a dysfunctional workplace full of suspicion and hostility to a loving, supportive, spiritual, TRUSTING place where even I like to come to work every day even knowing the number of challenges that will have to be addressed to complete our tasks and missions successfully, given how far-flung worldwide our operations are.

7. Fatigue. I would be less than honest if I did not admit that this has been a very tiring week. Except for Monday, when I returned home in time for our evening prayer group, I have worked until late into the evening every day. Combine that with going in early every. I had several early morning meetings, including this morning at 0730 when I had the pleasure of spending some time with the guru mentioned above. Some days I went in early because I wanted to get ahead of the 1800 emails in my mailbox that greeted me when I opened email toward the end of the day on Monday, Monday being so full of meetings, including one excruciating 3-hour meeting going over line item by line item all of our contracts, that I never got to my email until near the end of the day. I am pleased to report that when I decided to call it quits at 7:00 this evening, I was down to only 883 emails!

Monday Morning Meditation #47: Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Happy Fourth, er Fifth, of July! This week I contained to read in Chronicles about king after king. Many of them started out dedicated to God, but nearly all fell by the wayside, principally because of one trait: pride. Having one some battles with God's help, or having become wealthy or powerful, they became arrogant and full of pride. They not only lost God's help, but also they ultimately fell to His ire, dying in a couple of cases of a painful disease. Uzziah, Chapter 26, is a representative example. God afflicted him with leprosy as a result of his arrogance and presumption that apppeared after he had become powerful, successful, and a winner of battles:

16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17 Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the LORD followed him in.
18 They confronted him and said, "It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God."

After being afflicted with leprosy, Uzziah had to spend the rest of his life isolated. His reigning days were over.

Reading: 2 Chronicles 26.

Meditation: The first thought as I read through these chapters was how similar all these kings were. Clearly, they did not learn from each other (or from the priests and prophets who were sent to them).

The second thought as I read through these chapters was how foolish all these kings were. Clearly, they did not learn from history.

The third thought as I read through these chapters was how blind mankind is. We, too, fail to learn from history or from the priests and prophets sent to us. As I read about King Uzziah's actions in the temple but think of the story of St. Oswald, who arrogantly demanded the priest's larger host only to have it turn to blood and find himself sinking into the ground. I blogged about that remarkable story back when I was visiting Seefeld, Austria, where the Church of St. Oswald is located -- one can still see the indentations his fingers made in the table which turned to wax when he tried to save himself by grabbing onto it. The whole story is rather interesting, and rather than repeat it all here, I will send you back to that particular post: Falling in Love with Some Special Churches.

Pride -- it really does us little good, so why do we cling to it? So little of what we are proud of comes from ourselves. Talents come from God; skills that we develop usually come from teachers, mentors, parents; power is usually granted to us by others. So, where do we come off being proud? Yet, it is truly difficult to find people without a large helping of pride. Often as not, it does not satiate because we cannot satiate ourselves, and God does not come to us in our proud moments. God comes to us in our humble moments.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for coming to me at all, given my proud moments, to praise Him for the ways in which He teaches me humility, to repent for any times I have pride in self rather than pride in God, and to ask Him to help me develop the much greater humility that I need. Now I retire to spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)


For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Monday Morning Meditation #46: Please Don't Kill the Messenger

Good morning! It hardly seems like a whole week has passed since the last MMM, yet I know it has because it was a brutal week that I am glad is in the past. I look forward to an easier week this week -- says the eternal optimist! And speaking of work, how ironic that I as I moved fluidly through the various chapters of 2 Chronicles, I should get stopped by a chapter (18) that totally reminded me of work. Absolutely reflected, thousands of years ago, what I have experienced in the 21st century.

What is it that captured my attention? The killing of (or at least turning on) the messenger. But first, let me relate the story.

Jehoshaphat, the grandson of Solomon and great-grandson of King David, came into power as King of Judah. in this position, he decided to ally himself with Ahab, King of Israel. Together, they considered waging war on the Aramians in Ramoth Gilead. Jehoshaphat agreed to support Ahab but wanted him first to consult with a prophet of God. Ahab turned to Macaiah, who prophesied destruction. Since this is not what Ahab wanted to hear, he had Macaiah imprisoned and fed only bread and water to ensure that he would return -- the proverbial blaming of the messenger for the message. Not heeding the message, Ahab did what he had wanted to do all along: he want to war. And he was killed. Not listening to messengers can be dangerous!

Reading: 2 Chronicles 18.

Meditation: "Don't kill the messenger" is a message that I deliver to new managers at least once every year. That is during the time that we have our annual reverse evaluation.

The reverse evaluation is a management tool that I have introduced into every organization that I have overseen in the past 20 years. It is a highly effective tool, but it is rare that I can get others (peers) to use it. However, a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, someone who served as a member of the Board of Directors for an organization over which I presided 15 years ago, fell in love with the tool and has disseminated it as part of his consulting practice. I don't know how many of those companies may have adopted it, but one thing is certain: It only works if you don't kill the messenger.

Essentially, in the reverse evaluation representatives from each subordinate unit collect anonymous feedback about what management policies work and don't work for productivity, motivation, positive organizational culture, and general happiness of the work force. Sometimes, employees feel like they are rating their bosses, and I suppose that to some extent they are. The representatives provide the feedback publicly at an offsite. This can be somewhat embarrassing and off-putting to managers if they are interested more in what they can get from the workforce or their image than the truth (i.e., like Ahab, wanting to have the truth twisted to match what they want).

For new managers, this can be a very difficult experience. Most survive it and come to respect their Maciahs and welcome their insights and information. We have a saying in my division: "We love and protect messengers." However, there are upon occasions those new managers whose egos (like that of Ahab) will not let them accept the truth. As a result, also like Ahab, they perish. I nearly always have to replace them.

As for me, I make a promise to the unit representatives (the Micaiahs) that I keep: there will be no repercussions from telling the truth regardless of how difficult that truth may be to hear. That goes for everyone, beginning with me. If I am doing something that is impeding employees' productivity and/or happiness, I want to know about it so that I can avoid it. I have no intention of marching to Gilead if that is not where I should be going!

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I must retire to private prayer to thank God for giving me so many good "prophets," to praise Him for the ways in which He helps me suppress the ego that would otherwise rise up during moments of receiving truths I do not want to hear, to repent for any times I have closed my ears to such input, and to ask Him to help me develop the much greater humility that I need. Now I retire to spend as much time as I can in contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Tickled Pink with Embarrassment

I spend a fair amount of time teaching the principles of servant leadership to new managers and working with all levels of managers on implementing my leadership policies of servant leadership, reverse evaluation, and shared governance. I try very hard to practice what I preach, and I ask God for help every day. However, it is not easy to practice what you preach when it is in the area of servant leadership.

Like anyone else, I am vulnerable to stress upon occasion, and currently there is an inordinate amount of stress as we are poised for explosive growth. Right before Christmas, we reached the zenith of need for new personnel to be identified and the hiring process started and a nadir of activity. Learning the latter, I went in search of the manager of a particularly needy division and found his door locked. The associate manager told me that he was on vacation. I sort of remember approving the time off, but that was much earlier and before we knew that we would need globs of new people in January and February. I was furious that he would take vacation without having completed the hiring that needed to be done and without even bringing me up to date about it.

"Please call him in," I instructed the associate manager, "and, unfortunately, you will not be able to take vacation next week as you planned; no one can be away until we have an adequate number of personnel for the taskings that will appear right after Christmas." After that and until the manager showed up, I proceeded to take over the hiring process for one of the understaffed programs among several growing ones in this particular division, looking over the resumes and recommendations of applicants, and setting the program director about arranging interviews.

I understood from interactions after his arrival that the manager was upset, but I did not know how much until he sent me a note on Christmas Eve, telling me that he had been too distressed to attend Christmas Eve Mass with his family. I wrote back, urging him to go to Christmas Day Mass, that we could discuss issues of work at work on Monday, and that God can often put right what man has messed up. The short story is that he did go to Mass, and he said it brought him some inner peace

After everything had quieted down and we had all returned from the New Year holiday, I had a chance to talk to the associate manager about training some of the new supervisory staff brought in for some of the projects and emphasized the need to help them understand the concepts of servant leadership.

"Let me ask you a question," he said. "Do you consider your behavior last week appropriate to the servant leader model?"

When I queried what he meant, he referred to my calling in his boss from vacation and those rather difficult days between Christmas and New Year when we all had to work.

"Was there some kind of resentment about being called in from vacation?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "It was your reaction."

"Was I rude?" I am not without the capacity to be rude, never intentionally, but, you know, in a work world, things you don't want to happen do happen.

"No, you were polite," he said. "It was your body language. We could tell that you were angry with us and that made it difficult to work as effectively, well, certainly as efficiently."

I had not even realized how I had let that stress level take me over and then splash onto them. The associate manager was right; it was not a good example of servant leadership. Every day I begin my morning prayer by asking God to prevent me from harming anyone. Hm...I guess I was not listening to God that day. I wonder how many times He tried to reach me!

The conversation with the association manager reminded me of the time that 12-year-old Lizzie, having started a course in psychology at Northern Virginia Community College under a gifted student option, sat me down at the kitchen table and said, "Mom, we must talk."

"And what must we talk about?" I asked her.

"Your disciplinary techniques," she replied.

"And what is wrong with them?"

"Well, Mom, they are pretty haphazard, chaotic, and really nearly nonexistent."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, when you punish us you should not expect us to remember that we are being grounded or doing some other punishment. You should remember, too!"

Guilty as charged, I supposed she was right, and she left, happy that I seemed to understand the error of my ways but not at all convinced that I would be able to change. She was right on both counts.

I hope, though, with my managers that, with God's help, I can change.

Back to the associate manager, he was clearly aware of my willingness to discuss the situation with him, both from the point of view of appropriateness on my part and as an example of how managers should not handle stress. He was, though, very unlikely aware of my real emotional reaction. I was tickled pink that he was not afraid to address the issue with me, to tell me how what I had done made him feel, and to suggest how I might better have handled the situation. So, in spite of the somewhat embarrassing and uncomfortable feeling I had from not having practiced what I preached, I had something important: proof that I have indeed established an ambiance of servant leadership; otherwise he would not have presumed to correct my behavior.

Should I have had any doubt about that, the morning after came the clincher. I apologized to the manager while it just happened that the associate manager was in the room. The manager accepted my apology with grace: "We have to work together as a team, or we will never survive this avalanche of new tasks." Just exactly what I have been teaching (but apparently not quite so well modeling)!

I am very proud of my managers although I am less proud of myself. Perhaps what happened was a gift from God in spite of my not listening to Him very well that day. I was given the opportunity to develop greater humility. And that is always a useful and needed opportunity.

Monday Morning Meditation #18: Arrogance Leads to Destruction

Much like the Jews in the wilderness whose story fills the Book of Numbers, I am still wandering through this book. I found Chapter 16 fascinating because I see so much in common between the ancient Jews and my modern peers. In this chapter, 250 people, led by a man named Korah, rise up against Moses and Aaron, and, by extension, against God. Their complaint is two-fold: (1) they are every bit as holy as Moses and Aaron and should have direct access to God, and (2) Moses (and, again by extension, God) has failed to bring them to a land of milk and honey). This angers God. Moses begs God to have mercy to these men and especially not to punish all the Jews for the sins of a few. When all is over, the Jews as a whole are spared by their leaving the tents of the rebellious leaders, as God demands through Moses, but the 250 who led the rebellion perish for their arrogance.

Reading: Numbers 16

Meditation: While there were a number of emotions floating around the Israeli camps, the one that seemed to permeate the most as I read this chapter is arrogance. Arrogance is an emotion that I see a lot at work. It is the most typical downfall of the junior and senior managers who work in my directorate and the topic that I address most frequently at leadership development meetings that I lead (or that I bring in others to lead). When I arrived at the directorate as its head nearly four years ago, I introduced servant leadership as the leadership approach across divisions -- rather unhappy divisions, I would note. In the past four years, as we all have become more skilled at being servants to our employees and as our employees through our regular reverse evaluations become more skilled at pointing out where we, their managers, are failing to be good servants, the unhappiness in the various divisions has turned to deep-seated satisfaction and happiness that even visitors find palpable. Still, I have a few programs whose managers just don't get it, and their employees are the ones who most frequently take advantage of my open-door policy to complain. The core issue with these managers has little to do with doing things right. Most are very good at doing things right; on the other hand, they, at times, are not willing to do the right thing when it would mean throwing out the rule book. The core issue is their arrogance in thinking that they are "in charge" and, therefore, they determine how things work. They seek power to make themselves feel important. What they don't understand is that

- managers are never truly in charge; the employees who do the critical work are really the ones in charge;

- power held is always weak; power given away (authority granted to employees) grows exponentially in direct proportion to the amount given away;

- when, through the arrogance that emanates from some sense of our greater worth or skill, we hold all leadership decision-making unto ourselves, we deprive God of the opportunity to be the true leader in our organizations for God, as we have seen in this passage, chooses to work through humble and obedient people and, at best, lets arrogant people do themselves in; the reality is that we are not just as good as God at leadership, and when we turn leadership over to God and do it His way, incredibly marvelous things happen, like the development of whole divisions that love each other and love coming to work and even, upon some occasions, real miracles. (I would note here that leadership and relationships in our families and communities does not differ much from leadership and relationships at work.)

There is another aspect to arrogance that comes out of this chapter: the arrogance that comes from expecting God to answer our prayers in the way we want at the time we want, as did those that complained that they had not yet seen the promised land and therefore they had no desire to follow Moses any longer. That arrogance assumes that God is required to live up to our requirements, that we know better than God what is best for us. God not answering prayer in the way they desire is one of the greatest complaints I hear from the teens in my catechism classes. The concept that God sometimes says "no" is something that even adults sometimes have trouble accepting. Yet, often we find a better answer when we don't tell God what to do but simply turn over our problem to Him (and don't take it back). Yes, bad things do happen, and people, including children, do die, but we cannot assume in arrogance to judge that God should have intervened. Only God knows when intervention is warranted and when it is not. We have to trust that He knows what we do not.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I must retire to prayer to ask God to show me how to let Him always be in charge and to nudge me to check myself for arrogance regularly, to repent for all those times I have made a leadership or even personal decision without first asking for His guidance, to give thanks for all the many ways He helps me on a daily basis at work and at home, and to offer praise for the way in which He resolves problems in ways that far surpass my abilities and even comprehension.

After that, I will spend some time in contemplation, open to any lessons on humility He wishes to teach me, no matter how difficult they may be. (I have had some experience with His lessons.) I especially welcome His leadership in my life and at my work. I love the way in which He takes care of the people in my directorate, sometimes even protecting them from bad decisions I make when I forget to ask for His help, and in my family and community.

I will now leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts.

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of inspirational blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Have a good day and a good week, remembering in all things to do humbly whatever God requires of you. May you be blessed by His love and His aid as you do so.

Monday Morning Meditation #18: Arrogance Leads to Destruction

Much like the Jews in the wilderness whose story fills the Book of Numbers, I am still wandering through this book. I found Chapter 16 fascinating because I see so much in common between the ancient Jews and my modern peers. In this chapter, 250 people, led by a man named Korah, rise up against Moses and Aaron, and, by extension, against God. Their complaint is two-fold: (1) they are every bit as holy as Moses and Aaron and should have direct access to God, and (2) Moses (and, again by extension, God) has failed to bring them to a land of milk and honey). This angers God. Moses begs God to have mercy to these men and especially not to punish all the Jews for the sins of a few. When all is over, the Jews as a whole are spared by their leaving the tents of the rebellious leaders, as God demands through Moses, but the 250 who led the rebellion perish for their arrogance.

Reading: Numbers 16

Meditation: While there were a number of emotions floating around the Israeli camps, the one that seemed to permeate the most as I read this chapter is arrogance. Arrogance is an emotion that I see a lot at work. It is the most typical downfall of the junior and senior managers who work in my directorate and the topic that I address most frequently at leadership development meetings that I lead (or that I bring in others to lead). When I arrived at the directorate as its head nearly four years ago, I introduced servant leadership as the leadership approach across divisions -- rather unhappy divisions, I would note. In the past four years, as we all have become more skilled at being servants to our employees and as our employees through our regular reverse evaluations become more skilled at pointing out where we, their managers, are failing to be good servants, the unhappiness in the various divisions has turned to deep-seated satisfaction and happiness that even visitors find palpable. Still, I have a few programs whose managers just don't get it, and their employees are the ones who most frequently take advantage of my open-door policy to complain. The core issue with these managers has little to do with doing things right. Most are very good at doing things right; on the other hand, they, at times, are not willing to do the right thing when it would mean throwing out the rule book. The core issue is their arrogance in thinking that they are "in charge" and, therefore, they determine how things work. They seek power to make themselves feel important. What they don't understand is that

- managers are never truly in charge; the employees who do the critical work are really the ones in charge;

- power held is always weak; power given away (authority granted to employees) grows exponentially in direct proportion to the amount given away;

- when, through the arrogance that emanates from some sense of our greater worth or skill, we hold all leadership decision-making unto ourselves, we deprive God of the opportunity to be the true leader in our organizations for God, as we have seen in this passage, chooses to work through humble and obedient people and, at best, lets arrogant people do themselves in; the reality is that we are not just as good as God at leadership, and when we turn leadership over to God and do it His way, incredibly marvelous things happen, like the development of whole divisions that love each other and love coming to work and even, upon some occasions, real miracles. (I would note here that leadership and relationships in our families and communities does not differ much from leadership and relationships at work.)

There is another aspect to arrogance that comes out of this chapter: the arrogance that comes from expecting God to answer our prayers in the way we want at the time we want, as did those that complained that they had not yet seen the promised land and therefore they had no desire to follow Moses any longer. That arrogance assumes that God is required to live up to our requirements, that we know better than God what is best for us. God not answering prayer in the way they desire is one of the greatest complaints I hear from the teens in my catechism classes. The concept that God sometimes says "no" is something that even adults sometimes have trouble accepting. Yet, often we find a better answer when we don't tell God what to do but simply turn over our problem to Him (and don't take it back). Yes, bad things do happen, and people, including children, do die, but we cannot assume in arrogance to judge that God should have intervened. Only God knows when intervention is warranted and when it is not. We have to trust that He knows what we do not.

And that is far as I can go with you on this Monday morning. I must retire to prayer to ask God to show me how to let Him always be in charge and to nudge me to check myself for arrogance regularly, to repent for all those times I have made a leadership or even personal decision without first asking for His guidance, to give thanks for all the many ways He helps me on a daily basis at work and at home, and to offer praise for the way in which He resolves problems in ways that far surpass my abilities and even comprehension.

After that, I will spend some time in contemplation, open to any lessons on humility He wishes to teach me, no matter how difficult they may be. (I have had some experience with His lessons.) I especially welcome His leadership in my life and at my work. I love the way in which He takes care of the people in my directorate, sometimes even protecting them from bad decisions I make when I forget to ask for His help, and in my family and community.

I will now leave you to your prayer and contemplation, but first, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I hope you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts.

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of inspirational blogs that follow the enumeration of Monday Morning Meditations on the sidebar of this blog and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Have a good day and a good week, remembering in all things to do humbly whatever God requires of you. May you be blessed by His love and His aid as you do so.