Productivity unbound
Whenever we talk about productivity, we almost always frame it in the context of management, business and economics. Actually there’s nothing wrong there, as long as we don’t stop there either.
Productivity in those terms alone looks interested only in the fruits without its roots, the end result without looking into the effort it needs, and its ultimate sources and purposes.
It’s notorious for its being measured always. It’s helplessly bound to the external and material aspects of things. It seems averse to any entanglement with its internal and spiritual requirements.
It diminishes our personhood and tends to convert us into automatons. It shuts out our spiritual self and just builds up our material and economic self. This is, of course, impoverishing us.
With this frame of mind our own work becomes a hindrance to our own proper development, even if we only consider the human side of our development. It can bear fruits that can taste sweet but actually are poisonous.
We thus need to unbind our idea of productivity from that very restrictive understanding. Truth is productivity can only have its ultimate source and objective in God.
This reality is not meant to hamper economic productivity, but rather to enhance it, purify it and put it in its proper orbit. Far from undermining the practical and immediate requirements of productivity, this truth of faith enables us to understand and live them better.
God can only be the source and purpose of our productivity, since everything comes from him and also belongs to him. Even our talents and other endowments that allow us to be productive ultimately come from him and belong to him. We have to acknowledge this truth always.
For this, we need to live our faith, and consistently apply it to all aspects of our life, including our professional life and the endless little and ordinary things that make up our daily life.
We need to overcome the initial awkwardness involved in living this reality. Given the temper of the times and the character of the current culture we have, we may have to exert some effort to recover the original role this truth of faith about our productivity plays in our life.
It’s time we relate our interest in productivity with our faith. This particular aspect has long been neglected. It’s usually taken for granted, then set aside, and then rejected and ridiculed. We need to correct the situation.
With this underlying understanding of our productivity, we expand its coverage not only in the area of business and economics but also in all aspects of our life—when we are alone or with others, when we are at home, in the office or with friends, when we have difficulties or when we enjoy a good time, etc.
Let’s remember what St. Paul said: “I know how to live humbly and I know how to live in abundance (I have been schooled to every place and every condition), to be filled and to be hungry, to have abundance and to suffer want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,12-13)
We are told also that it is God who really knows how to guide us always, including in our work, because he knows what is best for us. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself asks for us with unspeakable groanings.” (Heb 8,26)
We should try to keep this truth in mind always, but especially in our work, making the necessary adjustments and adaptations so that even in our mundane activities, we can always remember it and allow it to shape the way we work.
This truth can even greatly help us when we have to tackle with difficulties and our own weaknesses plus the temptations around. It will keep us going in spite of whatever, and doing it with gusto and sense of purpose, understanding why things are the way they are.
For example, with respect to our weaknesses and temptations, this truth will tell us that these events and elements in our life actually indicate where we have to struggle.
Putting us to the edge, they actually invite us to go beyond ourselves and to always go back to God. We should never depend on ourselves alone. We are nothing without God. These weaknesses and temptations, in fact, are clear occasions when God tells us he is very close to us.
This truth about the real source of productivity will help us to be serene and cheerful always, optimistic in spite of whatever.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
