Find time to be with God

These days it is almost unheard of to have spare time on our hands. Time is a luxury. Almost everyone I meet complains about being too busy and not having time for “other” things.

It seems as though family duties, work responsibilities and church life take up all of our time.

When I complained to an old lady once that I was so busy and that there is always something I have to do, she replied: “At least you can’t complain that you have nothing to do.”

Although, at face value, this seems to say that being busy is better than having nothing to do, it is not always the case. Being too busy can rob us of a spiritual life. Because for a spiritual life we need solitude, and solitude begins with a time and place for God, and God alone.

Being busy is the story of our lives. It is the story of the world. The world is full of busyness.

As Christians, we are called to live in the world without being of the world.  On a daily basis we are in the market place, in the factories, in the corporations and institutions where we work.  After a day’s work we are involved in other associations and organisations such as sports clubs, community groups, church groups.

Many times we just get home, grab something to eat, watch 7de Laan and off we go again. Or we have to attend to an elderly parent, or sit with little ones, feed them, help them with homework, get them to bed, then only prepare ourselves again for the next day’s work.

Many people fall asleep in their armchairs while watching television.

Besides our own duties, there is always someone’s birthday we want to attend or we go to a wake service or visit someone in hospital.

Saturday mornings we get time to do things around the house, go to the shops, attend funerals, take children to school events, visit with friends. And on Sunday we go to Mass, come back and have lunch, have a nap, get up and prepare for Monday morning.

 

This is just how our weeks fly by. When will we have time to be alone, to be in solitude, to be with God and God alone?

I recently spoke to a woman who went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. She told me that although she was with a group of pilgrims, what she most enjoyed was the time she could spend on her own in a beautiful shrine. She told me it felt to her like she was alone with God and very close to God.

It is for this reason that it is important for us to create time and space—for us to be alone with God, because we are alone. You and I and all people are alone. I am unique; no one else feels and experiences the world the way I do: I am alone.

It is precisely where we are most alone, most unique, most ourselves, that God is closest to us. That is where we experience God as the divine, loving Father who knows us better than we know ourselves.

Time is time. There will always be 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week. We do not always have the opportunity to go on a pilgrimage to a holy place. So it is up to us to create time for solitude within our busy schedules.

And although solitude is necessary, it is also a difficult discipline. We might have a deep desire to be alone, but we can also experience a certain uneasiness as soon as we enter our place of solitude.

As soon as we have nothing to do, nobody to talk to, no books to read or TV to watch, we are confronted with what goes on inside of us. It is difficult for us to shut out our worries, our fears and anxieties, our unresolved conflicts or our angry feelings. And then we want to get back to our busyness.

But we have to start somewhere. Even if we can only manage five or ten minutes at a time. This five or ten minutes will grow into 30 minutes or an hour.

As the Gospel says: “Go to your private room and pray to your Father who is in that secret place” (Mt 6:6).