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Are You Called or Codependant?

nickbogardus:

Great post on Harvard Business Review:

If the work becomes more about satisfying a pathology than actually making progress, that’s going to affect our progress. Thomas Merton, the Christian Mystic, wrote, “There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by non-violent methods most easily succumbs: activism and overwork.” Merton was right, and not just about nonviolent protests. His thinking applies to every idealistic cause. He concludes by saying, “to surrender oneself to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone with everything, is to succumb to violence…The frenzy of the activist neutralises his work for peace.”

HT: John Bryson & Darrin Patrick

This is a tough question that needs to be asked of anyone that finds satisfaction in charitable work, not so much in the accomplishment of your goals, but in the struggle itself. God, help me; I am in pursuit of the balance in which Thomas Merton wrote, “Charity is a self-interest which seeks fulfillment in the renunciation of all its interests.”