Ostium Catholic

Psalm 139 opens with a claim that would sound alarming from anyone else. You know when I sit and when I stand. You understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize. Most people have worked somewhere that felt like that. Dashboards, activity logs, quarterly reviews, a manager who seems to know the one hour you were offline.

The psalmist says this with gratitude. The same God who probes him also guides him. Where can I go from your spirit? Even there your hand shall guide me. The knowing comes with a hand attached.

That matters for work because the two kinds of being known produce different behavior. A person who is being monitored performs. A person who is known and held loosens up. They are more willing to say they do not know, to report a mistake early, to ask for help before the deadline. Being watched by someone on your side makes people more honest.

Job's reading pushes on the same nerve from the opposite side. God asks him whether he has ever commanded the morning. Someone at the start of a career can feel that every outcome depends on their control. It is a heavy way to work. The morning comes whether or not you managed it.

You are known well enough that you do not need to manage how you are seen. What you are actually doing is enough of a report.

Choose one thing at work today that you would normally polish before showing anyone. Show it earlier and rougher to one person you trust, and tell them what you are unsure about.

Lord, you know when I sit and when I stand, and you are still on my side. Let me work as someone who is known and not as someone being watched. Amen.