You pray for your family and personal intentions in the morning and then spend the drive to work running through an overdue invoice and a staffing problem you have not solved. It is easy to arrive at the office without having brought any of it to God.
Those responsibilities belong in your prayer, because they are not a distraction from your vocation. They are part of it.
Every baptized person shares the same first vocation: to become a saint. That calling takes shape in the ordinary responsibilities of daily life, in your marriage, your family, and your work. The second vocation is the particular way you are asked to live that out. For a business owner, it means running the company honestly and caring for the people entrusted to you.
Thinking of your work this way makes those duties harder to set aside. For a married owner, the second vocation must fit within your responsibilities to your spouse and children. Calling the business a vocation does not excuse being absent from home.
The Responsibility You Carry
As an owner, you help determine what your company asks of people and how it treats them. Your managers share that responsibility, but they also watch what you reward, overlook, and do yourself.
Some of it does not transfer. You can delegate decisions about pay or communication. You are still responsible for the standards your managers follow, and for whether they have what they need to treat people fairly.
When a supervisor humiliates an employee, and you let it pass, you have made a decision about the workplace. When you admit that an unrealistic promise to a customer has put the crew under pressure, you show your managers what it looks like to own a mistake.
These decisions deserve the same examination of conscience you bring to the rest of your life. Where have you been unfair? Where do you owe someone an apology or a change in practice?
St. Paul told the Colossians to do everything, in word and in deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17). He made no exception for the decisions you make about other people’s working conditions.
The People Behind the Work
In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
Remember that when an employee makes the same mistake again, or a customer disputes an invoice. Each person has a dignity that remains even when the conversation is difficult.
You still need to correct mistakes and expect the work to be done well. Ask God for the patience to listen and the courage to speak honestly, without humiliating the person in front of you.
What Eternal ROI Means in Practice
His Way At Work uses “Eternal ROI” to describe the lasting value of caring for people beyond financial gain.
That care begins with your employees and extends to their families, clients, and the community. It needs a place in your budget and your managers’ responsibilities if it is going to survive a busy month.
Profit matters because a financially healthy company can sustain that work. Your responsibility is to pursue it honestly while protecting the dignity of the people who help earn it.
Bring One Decision to Prayer
This week, choose one business decision and bring it to prayer. Ask whom it affects, what you owe them, and where you need God’s grace.
You can begin by offering your work to God on the drive in.
If you are ready to make a formal act of dedication, explore consecrating your company to the Sacred Heart through His Way At Work. That commitment calls for a daily response in the way you lead.