I saw brought down in the Emunah and Bitachon sefer by Rav Dovid Abuchatzeira that the Chidushei Harim writes as follows
וכבר התלונן על כך בעל החידושי הרי"ם מגור ע"ה שישנם שני דברים שהעולם עושים בהיפך ממה שצריך להיות, כי פרנסה שהוא בידו של ה' יתברך (תענית ב.) ועם כל זה כל אחד ואחד רודף אחר פרנסתו ומחשב עצות לעשות כך או כך, ואינו משליך על ה' יהבו רק עוסק בפרנסתו בכל כוחו יומם ולילה, ו ואילו עבודת ה' יתברך התלוי ביד בשר ודם כמו שכתוב (דברים י, יב) 'מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך כי אם ליראה' וגו', ואמרו חז"ל (ברכות לג:) הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים, בזה משליך האדם הכל על ה' יתברך, ורק מזכיר בפה בתפילה 'ותן בלבנו בינה', אבל אינו עוסק כלל בזה (שיח שרפי קודש).
People have it backwards - when it comes to parnassah, about which Hashem retains control and about which there is no need nor use in worrying, they spend their time strategizing and toiling. But when it comes to their avodas Hashem, which is the arena in which they are expected to invest effort and time, they leave it to Hashem.
Thinking about this it becomes clear that when it comes to parnassah we really are supposed to be purely reactive, never proactive, responding only to that day's needs and never thinking beyond the moment. (Obv the 'day' is not bound by 24 hours but will be dependent on context). I sought an example of something in our lives that we treat in this way so that I could better envision and express the prescripted perspective we are supposed to have when it comes to our parnassah.
I cast about fruitlessly for a while, thought of and discarded quite a few ideas. The closest I came was to weather, if you ignore the last couple hundred years of meteorology - you deal with the day as it comes, react appropriately, never proactive, take an umbrella or don't, etc. It falls flat after a minute or two of thought though.
But then I realized that the perfect example was staring me in the face. It's exactly what the Ri Migash was telling us.
The way we treat our avodas Hashem is exactly the way we are supposed to treat our parnassah. And vice versa. Consider the following paragraph.
Dovid got up that morning consumed with deliberations about their long term goals and how he was going to achieve them. He spent the day dreaming up possible future scenarios and how he would minimize the fall-out, how they might leverage such developments into future growth, and what the ensuing conversations might look like. He spent a few hours working up an in-depth document laying out his plans and the 43 steps he saw would be necessary to accomplish them. Finally, he submitted his write-up to his partner for review and feedback.
If you saw this paragraph in the wild, not in the context of this piece, very few people would assume it was talking about avodas Hashem. When it comes to our avodas Hashem, it seems that the prevailing attitude is one of a complete lack of da'agas machar. Yes, of course, in the moment we take it seriously. Yes, we seek to daven with kavana and try hard to do what Hashem wants from us. But do we strategize the way we do with business? Do we spend hours ruminating over possible future outcomes, how a deal might manifest, and what roadblocks we'll have to navigate to get to the closing table? I think not. Instead we live entirely in the moment, dealing with what is in front of us, but not a minute beyond. We never get anxious or stressed thinking about a looming deadline or event, never feel overwhelmed at the prospect of performing under pressure and scrutiny. In short, we live with bitachon, doing the minimum level of hishtadlus necessary to satisfy our perception of what kind of Jew we are. And we do this in exactly the arena where we are not supposed to be leaving it to Hashem, not supposed to be casting our struggles and tensions upon Him, but instead to be shouldering the burden ourselves and step by step ekeing our way ever higher up the ladder.
How foolish! How misplaced!
And yet how fortuitous. We thus have the perfect paradigm for how we are supposed to be treating our parnassah. We think it is our problem to tackle and solve, the exact way we are supposed to relate to our avodas Hashem. We think that it is up to us to guarantee our success by dint of enormous hustle and constant effort, ever greater levels of hishtadlus, exactly the way we are supposed to relate to our avodas Hashem. And we think it is appropriate and not a stirah to emunah to feel anxiety, worry, stress over the outcome, exactly the way we are supposed to feel about our avodas Hashem.
On the flip side, when it comes to our avodas Hashem, we trust Hashem to make sure it all works out in the end, and entirely leave the details to Him. Exactly the way we are supposed to approach our parnassah. We live with unparalleled menuchas hanefesh and serenity as far as tomorrow's challenges go, barely if ever giving them any thought - exactly how we are supposed to think about our parnassah. And yes - we engage faithfully with today's list of mitzvos, doing our best to treat them seriously, while simultaneously not treating them like they matter very much beyond today, exactly like we are supposed to treat our parnassah.
So here we are in a unique situation. Each is the perfect paradigm for the other. How to make the switch? I have no idea. All at once, little by little? What a delicious problem.