I don't know that anyone knows how to turn it off. It's not so much that people are on a metaphorical treadmill but that they are on a commercial jetliner at 35,000 feet frantically typing away in preparation for the most important business meeting of their lives at their destination. We can talk about stepping off a treadmill, but reality is that we are stepping off of a plane in flight, and that first step is a doozy.
I learned very quickly that most people who talk about stopping all the striving can afford to do so. They have their savings or stock options as a parachute.
But for everyone else, I am not sure what the answer is. We have done a decent job in the Church of talking about grace, and grace works beautifully for dealing with sin and the reality that we are all damaged people on the inside, warped rebels against our Creator.
Yet I know that I struggle every day with the reality that trying to apply grace to the daily realities of the work world can be a massive disconnect. This is where most people live though. It's where 95% of the striving occurs, and that's because most people do not make the rules as to what is acceptable and demanded in the work world. You can choose to be an iconoclast, a contrarian, but unless you get incredibly lucky and find something that allows for that, you cannot simply do your own thing your way. Someone else has your career fate in their hands, whether it's a company owner, a direct supervisor, clients, or even your family. Striving may be anathema to you, but it's the expectation of them. Changing that is monstrously hard, because our entire system is built on it, and no one wants to take on the system.
Where is God in this? The easy answer is that He's not going to let you die if you take that leap of faith out of the plane. But then, sometimes He does, and that wreckage can affect generations. Theodicy is a maddening thing. In the same way that history is written by the winners, inspirational books are written by the people whose parachutes opened in time. We just don't get books from the people who cratered. They still exist though.
I would love to stop striving, but I would also love for the society we live in to stop necessitating it.
I may not have effectively delineated the difference between work and striving, or at least, specified that this is about the internal battle related to striving.
I know I cannot change what I cannot change. I can't change other people, the system, the job, etc. I can only change my situation within what's in my control. I can be caught up in a striving system--and I absolutely know long hours and wearying work--but it's made worse when my mind and heart pick up the striving as how I should be internally.
Apps that are designed to control the behavior of humans and get them to strive? Stop using them or ignore the gamification and the "punishment" if you don't play the game.
People who use you as a tool instead of as a friend? Exercising the word "no" is a good start.
Etc.
Not easy, but an attempt to end the internal striving that I can control. It makes a difference, whether or not I'm striving internally, even if I'm in a rat race. It's a different race depending on what I'm striving for in heart and mind.
Oof. That captured some of my inner angst.
I'm still working on it. I write from that place, instead of someone who has arrived.
I don't know that anyone knows how to turn it off. It's not so much that people are on a metaphorical treadmill but that they are on a commercial jetliner at 35,000 feet frantically typing away in preparation for the most important business meeting of their lives at their destination. We can talk about stepping off a treadmill, but reality is that we are stepping off of a plane in flight, and that first step is a doozy.
I learned very quickly that most people who talk about stopping all the striving can afford to do so. They have their savings or stock options as a parachute.
But for everyone else, I am not sure what the answer is. We have done a decent job in the Church of talking about grace, and grace works beautifully for dealing with sin and the reality that we are all damaged people on the inside, warped rebels against our Creator.
Yet I know that I struggle every day with the reality that trying to apply grace to the daily realities of the work world can be a massive disconnect. This is where most people live though. It's where 95% of the striving occurs, and that's because most people do not make the rules as to what is acceptable and demanded in the work world. You can choose to be an iconoclast, a contrarian, but unless you get incredibly lucky and find something that allows for that, you cannot simply do your own thing your way. Someone else has your career fate in their hands, whether it's a company owner, a direct supervisor, clients, or even your family. Striving may be anathema to you, but it's the expectation of them. Changing that is monstrously hard, because our entire system is built on it, and no one wants to take on the system.
Where is God in this? The easy answer is that He's not going to let you die if you take that leap of faith out of the plane. But then, sometimes He does, and that wreckage can affect generations. Theodicy is a maddening thing. In the same way that history is written by the winners, inspirational books are written by the people whose parachutes opened in time. We just don't get books from the people who cratered. They still exist though.
I would love to stop striving, but I would also love for the society we live in to stop necessitating it.
I may not have effectively delineated the difference between work and striving, or at least, specified that this is about the internal battle related to striving.
I know I cannot change what I cannot change. I can't change other people, the system, the job, etc. I can only change my situation within what's in my control. I can be caught up in a striving system--and I absolutely know long hours and wearying work--but it's made worse when my mind and heart pick up the striving as how I should be internally.
Apps that are designed to control the behavior of humans and get them to strive? Stop using them or ignore the gamification and the "punishment" if you don't play the game.
People who use you as a tool instead of as a friend? Exercising the word "no" is a good start.
Etc.
Not easy, but an attempt to end the internal striving that I can control. It makes a difference, whether or not I'm striving internally, even if I'm in a rat race. It's a different race depending on what I'm striving for in heart and mind.