When I 'Don't Have Time'

I often hear students say they 'don't have time' for many things that they want to do, whether that be attending a CCM event, reading a book, studying (that one comes up a lot), or even daily Mass and prayer.  I remember hearing a quote from Mother Teresa that if you think you're too busy to pray for 30 minutes then you need to pray for an hour.  Matt Warner over at Fallible Blogma wrote a little reflection on a quote from Peter Kreeft, "Lack of prayer is the cause of lack of time." Here is an excerpt:

...when I think my problem is that I have a lack of time, that really just means I haven’t prayed enough. It means I’m probably not prioritizing my life properly. It means I’m probably stressing about getting things done on my schedule as opposed to God’s.

I have often fallen into the trap of thinking I'm too busy to put more emphasis on my prayer life.  However, I can see that when I am stressed out about getting something done I'm really just needlessly sinking myself into useless anxiety because it always works out in God's time.  And not only do things work out, they work out better than they would have if I was in control.  He is trustworthy and dependable.  He knows our needs.  He is faithful.  Like it or not, we are dependent creatures. Without God we would cease to exist.  Our very lives are totally dependent on Him.  When we recognize that He is God and we're not, and that He loves us perfectly, life is much less stressful because we remember that God is in control and He has good plans for us.  We all have moments when we say we 'don't have time', but rather than falling into the trap of pushing God to the side because we don't have time for Him, we can instead recognize that if I feel overwhelmed, maybe I should slow down and take some time to pray. 

Read the rest of Matt's reflection here.