Hard Work

Entering a new year, I often think about big projects. I’m not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions, but I have participated in many projects over the years – papers, art, remodeling. Recently, I’ve been reminded of when my family moved into a new house in 2010. The house was wrecked. The family before us had several kids who apparently had free reign of the house, and on top of this, they had unfortunately lost the house due to the recession. As a result, they acted out by trashing the house, which was older and in need of repairs, anyway. We started working on improvements before we even completed the sale. We stripped wallpaper, patched holes in the walls, painted the ceilings, tore up old carpet, raked the lawn, drained the pool, power washed the concrete – the list goes on. I was only 9, so I didn’t quite appreciate that the hard work would produce a good result. I just knew that it was, in fact, hard work. Now, though, I see why my parents insisted on putting in the hours. They have a beautiful home that they will live in for many more years. I have good memories in that house, and I still love to visit when I get the chance. Our hard work turned a wreck into a comfy home.

Accomplishing a desired result usually takes a lot of hard work. My parents’ house sure did – 15 years later, they are still working on improvement projects. But then again, that’s life. No matter how much hard work you put in, there will always be more work to do. In 2024, I engaged in spiritual and vocational discernment at Interyear. I did the hard work once again, hoping that it would pay off. In many ways, it did. I didn’t figure out every path for my future, but I did gain a better sense of who I am and how I am meant to exist in the world. Now, at the start of a new year, I’m looking at new projects. How am I being called to do the hard work once again, expanding on my discernment from 2024? Where and how and with whom am I supposed to spend my time? What practices should guide this hard work?

In accomplishing the hard work at Interyear, the fellows are often guided toward the prayer of Teilhard de Chardin:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ
excerpted from Hearts on Fire (accessed via ignatianspirituality.com)

This January, as we enter 2025, sit back. Appreciate the work you have accomplished, whether this is remodeling a home or reshaping your daily practices. Take a break. Then start back, slowly but surely. Ask the hard questions and do the hard work. And, “above all, trust in the slow work of God.”