"Why is it, then, there is so much grumbling, everyone complaining that his work stands in the way of his sanctification? It is God who gave him his work, and God never put a hindrance in our way. Why are people so discontented and dissatisfied? Is not all work imparted to man by God's Spirit? And yet we do not see it that way and we remain disappointed. You must know that it is not the work that causes your trouble but the disordered way in which you go about it. If you did your work . . . [for] God alone and not yourself, you would not be anxious to please or afraid to displease anyone; you would not be asking for your own profit or pleasure, because you would seek God's glory alone in all your activities. If you looked at it that way, neither reproach nor scruples could trouble you."


~Johannes Tauler