"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Mt 6:21) What we treasure, what we obsess about, focus on, dream about--all says loads about where our hearts are.
The Tempter and Earthly Treasures
Satan and his minions encourage us first to set our hearts on the things of this world. After this, they tempt us to seek worldly approval, hoping that we'll spring from there to pride and other vices. It's good to consider what things of the world draw our attention at any particular time.
Not that having diverse interests and hobbies is bad. But, rather, do the worldly interests, hobbies and pursuits get in between us and God? Do our attachments to them hinder our spiritual growth? In other words, some attachments or attractions we have may be inordinate in nature. They're causing us to be out of balance spiritually. They're getting in the way of our progress along the ladder of ascent to union with God. We may be going after the wrong treasure.
Time with God a Treasure
How can we tell if we harbor inordinate attachments? First, consider this question: "Do I consistently make time for relational prayer with the Lord?" In other words, am I spending a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes every day in mental prayer? This is not the same thing as reading the Bible. Nor is it praying the Divine Office, the Liturgy of the Hours.
Rather, we're listening to the Word of God with "the ear of our heart," to borrow a phrase from St. Benedict. It may involve reading, reflection, talking to God, and listening to Him to see how it applies to oneself personally. Even more time than 15 to 20 minutes a day would be better. However, it's better to start there and gradually increase the time spent over some period of weeks or months.
Earthly Treasure Blocks Heavenly Treasure
So, have we committed to, and are we keeping that commitment to, relational prayer pretty much every day? If not, then why not? Often I hear, "I'm really busy, I don't get the sleep I need, I'm constantly working, I've got so many other critical demands..." Maybe, but maybe not.
In my experience, being blessed to walk with many holy men as their spiritual director, I've seen that just about everyone can carve out 15 to 20 minutes a day consistently for a dialogue with God. What I've also seen is that some people find it more difficult than others. This often comes from chasing treasures on earth rather than those in heaven, to paraphrase Scripture. (cf. Mt 6:19-21)
Consider a brief self-examination here to perhaps identify where some earthly treasures might be blocking ascent to God in our lives. In other words, what treasures on earth seize and hold our attention, taking us away from talking with, thinking about or practicing the presence of God?
- When my mind wanders, where does it go--what does it ponder: earthly pursuits or heavenly pursuits?
- When I'm killing time surfing the web, exploring topics on my web browsers, what topics and sites do I go to--is there a theme?
- If I'm short on time some days, what do I cut out, and what do I leave--earthly pursuits or heavenly ones?
Out of 10,080 minutes in a week, can we find a way to take 1.4% of that time to dialogue with our Lord? What's stopping us if we're not already doing that or more?
Distractions Impede Pursuit of Heavenly Treasure
Let's consider our answers to the foregoing questions for some hints at making time for our Maker. Clearly, it would seem, that our "time-saving" technology keeps us too much in touch with what's going on everywhere and allows us to spend too much time on pursuits of questionable benefit. It presents many, many obstacles to recollection in the presence of God by way of its nearly infinite range of distractions available to us. As such, we're called to do a more rigorous job of maintaining some discipline over our use of technology and access to social media.
And, how many of us can remember growing up with a rule in the house that we couldn't engage in our recreational activities until we took care of our chores? While time in relational prayer with God is never a chore and we should never consider it as such, we should consider prioritizing our days to give Him our first fruits of time and attention.
Do We Treasure Our Role in the Kingdom?
Not only must we properly prioritize our prayer time with God--we need also to give a high priority to serving Him through our service to others. Each of us has a unique, unrepeatable mission for the Kingdom of God. Do we have some idea of what that is? Of course, if we've not spent time in relational prayer with Him, how could we know? And if we do know, are we carrying it out? Again--if not, why not? Are our other interests crowding out the work cut out for us? We may want to take this question to prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament.
What's more, some of us are bumping up on the upper end of the mortality tables. Therefore, we may wish to look a bit more intensely at this issue. We're here only for a short time, and each day, the time grows shorter. When our time's up, which greeting from our King do we prefer to hear? "Well done, good and faithful servant." Or, "What have you done?"
Even if you're younger than 60 to 70-plus years of age, we don't know the day or the hour when our Lord will call us out of this world. What's holding you back from committing more fully to Him? Which pursuits are keeping you from being a more spiritually fruitful instrument in the hands of Jesus and Mary?
Making Needed Changes
If you think this applies to you, talk to your regular confessor or your spiritual director. Pray for the Holy Spirit to stir up His gifts in you. Especially pray for Him to stir up the gift of piety in you to support your practice of the virtue of prayer. Ask for the grace to grow in the virtues of temperance and self-discipline, with the gift of fear of the Lord to support them. God will provide His grace--do your part and respond to it. Reprioritize, as necessary, your time spent watching web videos, reading news you don't need, obsessing over your hobbies. Make room in your schedule to run to God and abide in Him.
"Run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you." Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict, referring to John 12:35
