Trusting the Sacred Heart when plans fall apart

The last planned decade of your career has a way of feeling both powerful and unfinished at the same time. You've got the wisdom, the passion, the hard-won experience. You work smarter. You finally see the fruits of everything you've poured into your work. The finish line feels close, and honestly, it feels good.
​
Then life does what life always does. It changes.

For me, it happened fast. I had responsibilities, a clear direction, a sense of control that felt almost comfortable. I thought I had it figured out. And then, right in the middle of the track, a sinkhole opened up. No plan could correct it. Starting over wasn't a choice; it was the only option.

There was real grief. The kind that doesn't stay in your head. It moves into your chest, into your body, spinning and gaining weight. Losing a plan hurts, even when no one else quite understands why. But underneath the grief was a harder question: What if the future I was holding onto wasn't the one God had in mind?

I kept coming back to something St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote: "He who trusts in himself is lost. He who trusts in God can do all things."  That cut right through me, because honestly? I'd been trusting in myself; in my plans, my timeline, my version of success.

A Christian in business learns to see crisis differently. The Lumen Institute puts it beautifully: "Every crisis contains a hidden invitation - an opportunity for purification, a call to detach from worldly success, or a chance to exercise heroic virtue" (Lumen Institute Monthly Circle, May 2026).  I want to believe that.  I'm learning to live it.

The turning point came when I stopped making plans without God and started actually surrendering. Not vaguely but concretely, out loud: "Okay, Lord. If this isn't Your way, show me a new path and help me to follow Yours."

That's where devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus went from being a beautiful tradition to being a lifeline.

The Sacred Heart isn't just an image. It represents the whole interior life of Jesus: His love, His virtues, His very Person.  His is a heart that is both overflowing and wounded. That matters deeply when your life feels like it's been turned upside down, because it means you're not being asked to trust a distant, abstract God. You're being invited to trust a Heart that loved completely, was rejected, suffered and kept loving anyway.

Once I understood that, my next step became clear: If I was going to start over and build something new, then prayer had to be the foundation. So, my first act in launching my new business, my new practice, will be to consecrate it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

What does that mean, exactly?

To consecrate your business is to hand it over deliberately to God; to set it apart, not for your own agenda, but for His.

As Pope Benedict XVI said at his Chrism Mass in April 2009: "To consecrate something or someone means… to give that thing or person to God as his property… so that it no longer belongs to our affairs, but is totally of God."

The people at His Way at Work, a ministry dedicated to integrating our faith into business culture, describe it this way: your company becomes an extension of your Catholic faith. Christ becomes the Good Shepherd of your business. The goal is no longer just profit, it's contributing to the glory of God and the dignity of every person you serve: your employees, their families, your clients, your community.

That's exactly what I need. Not just a plan for success, but a dedication of purpose. A business consecrated to the Sacred Heart becomes a place where decisions are shaped by love, where honesty isn't optional, and where serving others is treated as an act of worship.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, by Al Saulso.

June is the month we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart. So, here's my personal invitation to you: if you own a business, lead a team, or show up to work every day trying to live your faith, consider consecrating it. You are called.  You matter. Also, the people around you, the ones watching how you lead and love, they belong, too.

"O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You."

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore You, I love You, and with lively sorrow for my sins, I offer You this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure, and wholly obedient to Your will.  Grant, Jesus, that I may live in You and for You.  Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in You.  Amen."

---

Written by Dr. David Cichon, a husband, father of six, and a dentist in the Diocese of Calgary. He serves on the board of Heroic Men Canada (God Squad).