Your actions are either responses to demands of outside forces or are generated from within yourself. Of course, there is a mixture of these two that operates within any given situation. If, in life, you act primarily as a reactor or perform a role assigned to you by others, your soul will gradually shrivel. Your assignments may range from a role in the family to a role in the community: "You are a listener." "You are an entertainer." "You are an audience." "You pick up after the mess of any sort." "You fill gaps." "You do chores." These actions may or may not be suitable for or desirable to you. None of these roles is inherently good or bad. The question is: do they reflect your inner self? Your actions should resonate within your soul. If they don't you are not living a full life.
Your role, your actions, your outer self should reflect your inner self. Then, in full harmony with your outer and inner self, you'll replenish your soul with every action you take, regardless of how important or unimportant the action might be. When your soul is reflected through the prism of your actions, it will convey your sincerity and commitment. Your actions become an extension of your authentic self. You won't be acting a designated role but enacting yourself in a given context. The enacting from within will keep you focused on your goal.
Single-minded focusing, unaligned with your soul and God's wishes, brings results but not necessarily healthy ones. A determined attitude to marry someone, to take over a business, to get a certain award, to buy something, or even to get pregnant or adopt a child may succeed. If the goal is not fully aligned with your soul, immediately after you achieve your goal you will be only temporarily and relatively satisfied (if not mildly depressed). To get what you so badly want will create mixed feelings once you achieve it. You can't remain joyfully serene because the energy used in focusing on that specific goal will not be self-regenerative.
You need to focus to achieve your earthly goal, but that goal has to be aligned with your soul and with God. The Bible says you need to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph. 1:10)
Those who love their work do not work for the eyes of other people, but for the eyes of God. A worker with such commitment is like the medieval artisans who carved the backs of statues with the same skill, attention, and loyalty that the master sculptors applied to carving the fronts of the statues. These unnamed artisans knew that though no human eyes would see their work because it would fit snugly against a wall, God's eyes would. That is the meaning of work's being true in and of itself-it is done for God's eyes. When your overarching goal- working for God-is so clearly identified, the steps that you must take to bring the goal about will be laid before you. You will run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. (1 Cor. 9:26)
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T. Byram Karasu, M.D. is the author of The Spirit of Happiness
