Lenten Journeys - Week 1 - Prioritize

How many of us make to-do lists? I make them all the time. We prioritize that this thing needs to get done first, then this, and then that. We organize our whole day sometimes by our to-do lists. They are very useful and help us to stay focused during our very busy lives.

Most of us have probably also heard that we must prioritize our lives and put first things first. Namely, put God first, then maybe family and work, as well as many other things like; charity, vacation, retirement, savings, new car, kids, and social life, to name a few. We spend time thinking about all the things we do and we prioritize them. Usually by either our time or our money.

When we look at our life real honestly what does our prioritized time list look like? Mine kinda looks like this:

1. Sleep
2. Work
3. Spouse
4. Eating
5. Kids
6. God
7. Media (movies, TV, games)
8. Cleaning
9. Self/Relax
10. Relatives and friends
11. Charity/volunteering
    any other stuff I can fit in

Really, I want to have God at the top, that's where he belongs, but in reality it just doesn't seem to work this way. I've tried but I just seem to fail every time and it gets frustrating. And another problem with this approach is that we tend to treat our priority list as a to-do list, checking things off as we complete them. So, spend some time with my wife, done, check her off the list. God, yeah I prayed and went to mass, check him off the list.

Face it our time and money are limited things. So in the end most of us spend over 75% of our time at work, sleeping and eating. That doesn't leave much left for those who need/want us the most, God and family.

Stop and think about your own priorities and list them. Be honest, list them as you would like them, then list them as they really are.

Now throw away all those lists. We are gonna have a paradigm shift. Prioritizing your life this way just never seems to work so let's explore a new idea and way to look at it.

Give God 100% of your time or money!

Yep, that's my new wild idea and I really think it will work.

Think of it like a dart board and God is the entire board. God is involved in everything and knows everything, so why not ask him to come with you as you try to do everything you gotta do. Now you can number and rank all of your priorities and set them up on the dart board and start knocking them out. You will have have 100% of your time for them and still spend 100% with God because you have made him a part of everything you do. Anywhere you hit you have a priority and you have God. He is a part of everything you do.

Need to spend time with your kids, pray first and ask the Lord to be with you during your play time. Going to work, as you enter the car or approach your place of business ask God to be with you today at work. We may already do some of this as many of us pray before we eat and we sometimes pray before we fall asleep.

We just need to do it more, throughout the whole day. I believe that this is what it means to pray unceasingly. Prayer is nothing more than a relationship with God and spending time with him. If we ask him to be with us throughout our day and we take time to acknowledge his presence we are praying always. And we still have the time for all the other things we need to do.

Let's take some time to see how we can implement this type of prioritizing into our lives in a practical way by looking at the 3 pillars of lent; prayer, fasting, and alms giving.

Fasting

Fasting is simply denying ourselves something so to make room for something else that we wish to grow. As we are prioritizing we are naturally fasting from something to do something else. If we spend time fasting from the TV then we naturally have more time for something else, like reading scriptures or playing with the kids. If we fast from a certain type of food or a meal altogether we are emptying our bodies of food so that we can gain some extra self control of our will power.

This self control can be very powerful, because if we can't say no to a potato chip or a candy bar how can we expect to be able to say no to more serious temptations that come our way.

Many of us have probably picked something to fast from during lent. This is a very commendable practice and it helps us to build our will power. This year I am giving up salty and sweet snacks aside from meals. This is proving to be quite difficult for me already because for my job I sell cookies and crackers and they are there tempting me all day as I work.

Giving something up for a full 40 days can be quite challenging and rewarding. But I also believe that picking something for just one day or maybe a week can be equally as rewarding and effective at building self control and discipline. And for this week I am going to suggest we challenge ourselves to fasting from something important to us but not essential. This can gain us such a feeling of freedom it can be indescribable, but it can be a great challenge. Here are a few suggestions that might work for you:

• Are you a TV watcher? This week don't watch or record your favorite show but instead spend time with your spouse/kids or in prayer with scriptures.
• Do you really love to eat? This week pick one dinner meal and eat 1 bowl of soup or 1 serving of rice only. Spend time thinking about and/or talking with family about the poor and hungry in the world who have less than this meal for an enitire day.
• Are you a news junkie? This week pick one day and refrain from all news sources that day. No internet news, no TV news, no weather reports or sports talk, no political shows on TV or radio.

Think about it. It's just 1 day or 1 show. It will still be there tomorrow or the next week. Do you have enough control over yourself to really do it? Or does the other thing own you and have control of you. Remember you are only doing this 1 time or for 1 day. And if you are following our priorities principle of asking God to be with you always you are never alone in your fast. He is there with you to provide strength and comfort.

When you do this please share your experience in the comments section after this blog. Let us know what you fasted from and how it went. What were the fruits of your fast?

Alms Giving

When we share our resources/talents/gifts with others who have less we are giving alms. Traditionally we think of just the poor and hungry but in reality we are all poor and hungry for something. If you did the fasting exercise above with the dinner idea you can also use this as an alms giving exercise as well, by setting aside money for the hungry. This is the premise of C.R.S.'s (Catholic Relief Services) rice bowl campaign.

As we look into ourselves and at our lives this week we are focusing on prioritizing and inviting God into our lives in everything. We also know that in order to give something we must possess it first. In order to share our money with the poor we must have some money. In order to give food to the hungry we must have some food. In order to share love with others we first must have love in our lives. And so on... In order to give something we first must have that something.

Well, if you are anything like me and my family we have way too much. We throw away leftovers too often and other food rots away in the back of the fridge. We spend hours trying to declutter areas of the house when we never should have saved all that junk in the first place. We spend time moving it from this pile to that pile, then over to that room and then into that drawer, only to look at it 2 years later and think, what did I save this for, and eventually throw the thing away.

So this week as an alms giving practice let us look at all the extra things we have. Take a piece of paper and walk through the house and look at all the excess. Write it down. Take inventory. Look at all you got. Then sit together as a family and continue by writing down any special gifts and/or talents your family or individual members may have. Maybe your family is gifted with musical talent, or athletic talent. Maybe your family is gifted in special knowledge of computers or history or whatever. Take stock of your family talents as well and write them down.

Taking this inventory and talking about it can help us remember how many blessings we have. Then we can work to share our blessings with others and bless their lives as well.

Remember we have to know what we have before we can give it away.

Prayer

We have already introduced some ideas about prayer and prioritizing God into everything. Through prayer we keep an ongoing relationship with God. If we prioritize God into everything we have also prioritized prayer into everything. This means setting aside time to make sure we are praying.

For our prayer reflection let us meditate on the 1^st and greatest commandment.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one

Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your soul, and

with all your might.

Deut. 6:4-5

Our most important priority in life is this commandment. Even more so than our family and our work. Are you ready to live this out? Have you taken these words to heart?

Read the scripture passage again, but this time read it slowly and read it like you have never heard it before. Really read and ponder each word. We have heard this passage so often do we ever stop and really pay attention to it?

As we prioritize we need to think about what really moves our heart and to what do we devote our strength and energy.

I really think that we need to try and prioritize God into our entire day as we have discussed earlier. The most concrete and effective way to do this is through set times of prayer throughout the day.

Most typically people prayer at mealtimes. Many people pray at the beginning and end of the day. But there are so many opportunities to pray throughout the day. Do we take advantage of those opportunities?

This week I am suggesting that we set an alarm on our cell phones to remind us to pray. It can be anytime and any prayer. Maybe set it for 12 o’clock and pray the Angelus. Maybe set it for 3 pm and say a prayer to remember Christ's passion and death.

It doesn't need to be any big thing. It doesn't need to take a long time. It just needs to be done. Set your alarm and pray. Do it everyday for a week.

Start small and we will build upon this during lent. The key is that we start to develop a habit of prayer or if we already have a habit of prayer we do something this lent to strengthen it and deepen it.

Conclusion

Most of us make to-do lists. Most of us try and prioritize our lives. I believe that all of us want to bring some order and stability into our lives. I believe these suggestions may help us to get our focus right as we begin our lenten journey.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, you wandered into the desert and there spent 40 days of fasting and prayer. You spent time alone with your Father. Help us as we attempt to live out our own 40 day journey of growing closer to God, our Father. Help us to find ways to include him in our entire lives. Help us to remember that he is always present and available for us at anytime and anyplace. Please lead us on our lenten journeys. Amen