I hit snooze on my time with God far more than I do on getting out of bed in the morning.
I wake up early every weekday morning – and very often on weekends as well. This is not something that I particularly enjoy doing, but I have come to realise through habit and a lifetime of application that the best time of the day to get things done is just as the sun is rising.
In this way, I am able to get a handle on my day before any other interruptions cloud it and I feel that I can get started.
Now, just because I wake up early in the morning, does not mean that I love getting out of bed early. I am in fact – and have always been – the earliest riser in the home. It was that way when I was a young girl at home and it remains the case today as a mother in my own home. But just because this is the habit of a lifetime, does not mean that I enjoy the feeling of rising before the sun!
“‘What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’” (Matthew 21:28-32).
And I have been reflecting on that today… You see, while the first son was disobedient, the first was simply distracted… Saint Paul the Apostle said in his letter to the Romans, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (7:15). And in that way, he was a slave to sin – as are we all.
And I have been thinking about those distractions – because life is filled with them.
There is the radio in the car. That is a distraction. A radio is not a bad thing. It is in fact something that could be used in a very good way without any negative or harm coming to a person or a soul through the use of it. And yet, the radio can be a distraction. For example, when the radio is playing inside my car, I am less likely to want to pray a decade of the Rosary or to meditate on the Passion and Death of Our Lord.
And I have been thinking about that today because the radio is not a bad thing at all – it is just a distraction. And as a distraction, the radio is something that while not wrong in itself can be used as an excuse for so many things.
And today when I think about that it occurs to me that I hit snooze on my time with God far more than I do on getting out of bed in the morning. And today, that seems like a terrible waste!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.