Do you have a difficult work colleague or boss ?

In my early career I was very blessed in having good Supervisors and Managers. They were good mentors and I benefited greatly from their experiences and the knowledge they passed on, as well as their friendship. So years later, when I joined a new company, it was something of a challenge to deal with a particularly difficult boss who was shaped in a rather different mould.

Of course we are all under authority of some sort and firstly I had to acknowledge that reality and accept his direction as legitimate and suffer in silence,but not passively. I sought a higher authority.

I noticed a nearby church which held Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during lunchtime on Wednesdays and I decided that I would use part of my lunch hour each week to pray for him. And so week after week, month after month I went to the Holy Hour and prayed for my boss. Frankly his ways did not improve; but after a few months he was offered a good job in another company and left. I rejoiced and thanked God !

By now I was already in the habit of my Wednesday lunchtime prayer and decided to continue. This time I decided to pray for my immediate supervisor, who I got along with very well, and so again I prayed week after week, month after month and after a few months, he was promoted and I inherited the stapler, his desk, and his Job Title!

I was on a roll and quite fascinated at how God was bringing about the structural changes in our company. What next? I was running out of Bosses but there was one left, also a good chap, so I started to pray for him. Week after week , month after month I made my Wednesday pilgrimage for my colleague and a few months later, I left!  Another opportunity opened up for me overseas.

Really there is no formula that we can apply with how God works. Especially if we have no fixed agenda in our prayer for others, we can simply watch Him work things out for us and for those around us. We cannot get along with everyone, nor usurp legitimate authority but, we can change the world with prayer!