Time for God?
“There just never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done and you expect me to set some quiet time aside to spend with God in prayer.”
So said a young mother at a church meeting, and immediately everyone in the room was on her side agreeing with her. An embarrassed young man then stuck his hand up to speak and said “ I know that problem, for me the only time most days that God and I can spend time together is when I’m in the bathroom first thing in the morning.” After a bit of discussion he continued
“The important thing for me isn’t so much the where or the how, but the rightness of setting even a few moments aside to get my life into some sort of balance.”
It is said that Susanna Wesley, mother of nineteen children including John and Charles, would pull her apron over her head when she needed time with God. When her children saw the apron go over her head, they knew to leave her alone!
The time set aside doesn’t always have to be lengthy. In his brief treatise of 1535 titled ‘A simple way to pray‘, Martin Luther said
“A good prayer need not be long or drawn out, but rather it should be frequent and ardent.”
In the same treatise, Martin Luther went on to say something which has become a Latin (and English) proverb:
“Pluribus intentus, minor est ad singula sensus”
”He who thinks of many things, thinks of nothing and does nothing right.”
In the business of life, even a few moments concentrated on God is not wasted….
….and when we’re busy, perhaps we can take comfort in, and pray the prayer of Jacob Astley in 1642:
“O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me.”
