Take Time for God 

   People rush here, hurry there and have less and less time for what is important.  Our lives can become one crisis after another if we allow it.

   On any Sunday sit in one of the back pews at Church.  You will see people rushing into Mass at the last minute and heading for the doors before the last prayer and blessing.  I’ve wondered what could be so important that the extra few minutes they gain are worth the lack of respect shown to God by their actions.  At times I’ve seen these very same people sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast when I arrive.  Did they leave the table of God in such a hurry just to get to the table of a restaurant?

   Even in retirement I see people who are rushing from place to place.  For what purpose?  The habits we form in our earlier life are difficult to change in retirement.  We still act as though we need to be in a hurry for everything.  At a time when we should be taking more time for God and family we are still in a hurry to go nowhere.

   We need to slow down and take the time to enjoy life and get to know our God.  We need to become a real family instead of a bunch of individuals whose paths sometimes cross.  Priorities need to be revisited, we need to pay far more attention to the health of our spiritual and family life.

   Jesus told a parable about a rich man who could not seem to rest.  “And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’  But God said to him, ‘Fool!  This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12: 18-20).  It is appropriately called "The Parable of the Rich Fool."

   We have a choice.  We can live our lives chasing worldly goods or we can live them seeking God.  Make the right choice.  Don’t ignore the daily needs but focus on the eternal ones.  What you have today can be gone tomorrow; the treasures you store up in heaven are everlasting.