The difference between having time and making time

My sermon for this week was based on John 6:35-51.

To hear an audio of my sermon, click here.

I had a homeroom teacher in grade 7 who, whenever a student claimed to have not had time to complete an assignment, would say, "No, you didn't MAKE time".

I often think of this saying whenever I try to claim that I didn't have time for something.  We all have exactly the same amount of hours in every day.  Yes, life gets busy and sometimes we literally do not have enough hours in the day to do everything we want or need to do, but the fact of the matter is that we all prioritize our days: we do what we feel is most important or what we most want to do.

In other words, we choose to make time for some things, and choose to not make time for other things.

This will by no means be news to you, but anything worth having requires effort.  Any relationship we value requires work, and if we value it, we will put the time and effort into it.

Once again, not news, but our relationship with God is much like any other relationship: it takes work, and if we value it, if we want it to be fruitful, rewarding and productive, it will take some effort on our part.

God makes his effort.  God is always present and does not waver in his presence, but what does waver is our ability or willingness to reach out to God.  I am not the only person to have remarked this.  Michelangelo seemed to be of the same mind when he painted The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel.

Forgetting for the moment how offensive it is that God is portrayed as a white male, notice how God is reaching out, straining every muscle, but Adam is reclining with his elbow on his knee, seemingly unwilling to even lift his hand to touch God.

Yeah, sometimes that's me too.

I suffer from depression, and when I am at my lowest, I don't so much feel that God is absent, but I don't want to talk to him because in my petulant little heart, I somehow blame him for "letting" me feel down.

One would think that I would be more inclined to talk to God when I am feeling great though, right?

Nope.

When I feel great, I actually feel like I don't need God, so I don't talk to him.

One would think that I would make ample time between those two extreme ends of the spectrum in which to talk to God, right?

Nope again.

Even as a priest, I get "too busy", a say I will do it later, I say there is no need to work on that relationship.

That is a failure on my part to make time for God, and I always suffer for it.  I always suffer for not being grounded, for touching base with the divine, for not keeping God in a central position in my life, for not working on that relationship.

Make some time today.