Making Time or Making Excuses ???

"There is a time for every matter under Heaven" - Eccl. 3:1

Stuck in a rut in your faith life or your everyday routine? Feel like there's too much to do and not enough time in which to do it? Does something in your schedule need to change?

Why are believers so shocked that our lives can get so filled with stress? Why are so many who are involved in ministries often without joy? Why is anxiety and worry more prevalent than peace in many modern Christians? I'll throw out one possible answer. We don't pray - not enough. Prayer is the hinge-pin that holds everything else together and keeps us moving forward. Without prayer everything falls apart. Without prayer we're not living, we're breathing. Prayer is the most primal, most basic and most important thing we can do as Christians and, yet, it's often the very first thing to go when we "get busy". We don't take time to pray. Which is another way of saying it's not as much a priority as other things in our life that we to take time to do. What we need to admit is that we don't make time to pray. Some weeks I don't make time, I make excuses. I justify it to myself. How so many other things are pulling on me. I justify how my prayer is interrupted, cut short or unfocused because of the reality of the world around me. The reality is - that's life. Jesus had people pulling on Him. Jesus had people wanting things from Him 24/7. Jesus had plenty to do, didn't He? And He made the time. Throughout the Scriptures we are given scenes and examples in which Jesus removed Himself from the busy-ness and made some time to pray. Put very simply, we need to be more like Jesus. If you drew a pie chart of your week, breaking down where all of your time goes, what would it look like? There's probably a lot of time in there for work or school. There's definitely time in there for travel, meals and sleep (probably not as much as you'd like). I'll even bet that there's time included for exercise or hanging out, reading or spending time with friends (again, probably not as much as you'd like). None of those things are bad they're good. We need relationships, activities and rest, absolutely.

Outside of going to Mass, however, how much time each week is spent with God? Why don't married couples spend more time praying together than doing tasks around the house? Why don't priests spend more time praying and less time in meetings? Why don't we make more time in the day to just hang out with God and less time on mySpace or Facebook or sitting in front of the television? Don't worry, I'm asking myself the difficult questions, too. So, here's a few questions to ponder: When was the last time you got up thirty minutes early to have a cup of coffee with God in the morning? When was the last time you got ready for bed early, fell on your knees beside it and really prayed before falling asleep? When was the last time you prayed a rosary where you were really, totally focused? When was the last time you fasted outside of the season of Lent? When was the last time you read the upcoming Sunday readings a few days in advance? When was the last time you turned off the radio, shut off your cell phone and invited Jesus to ride shotgun with you in your car? When was the last time you invited your significant other to pray with you? When was the last time grace before your meal took more than 15 seconds? When was the last time you just opened up the Catechism and read? When was the last time you went to Reconciliation (If your Catholic)? What's keeping you? When was the last time you did an act of service for another, not because you signed up to do it. But the last time you randomly went out of your way?

These are the questions I have begun to ask myself each week; some weeks I'm doing great and other weeks I'm not doing so hot at all, but that effort is, in and of itself, a form of prayer.

The reality is that I can always improve and maybe, just maybe you can, too. Have you been making time or making excuses? If you don't think you have the time, give your schedule to God (the timeless one). I'll bet He can move some things around for you, if you'll let Him.

"There is a time for every matter under Heaven" - Eccl. 3:1

Prayer isn't about words, it's about time.