Fr. Nathan Cromley in his Faces of Mercy* presentation talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan in a way that convicted me. He said all those who did not stop to help the injured man kept walking, because there was something in their minds that was more important than stopping to help him.
If we truly trust God to direct our lives, then we should stop and do what's in front of us truly needing attention and trust He will work out the rest. I think of 1 Corinthians here: "[Love] does not insist on its own way." But we do, at least I do. Ridiculously, I believe that sticking to my plan and getting it all done is better than doing what the Lord puts in front of me at a given moment.
We think that we do not have time for certain things, a phone call from a needy friend or relative, a child begging to play or read a story, or pulling up the daily readings to reflect for a few minutes. When we put first things first, God rewards us. As I told my teenager the other night, when I stop what I am doing and give the little boys a few minutes of focused attention first, they often then play joyfully for a long while, allowing me to accomplish more than I would have if I kept rebuking their interruptions.
Rather than taking the attitude of Parkinson, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion," and worrying about the abundance of tasks that are more important in my mind, I advise taking the Life's Little Instruction Book way:
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
Have a blessed day, letting God lead the way!
* It's not too late to register for access to the Faces of Mercy Online Catholic Conference 4 Moms! You get access for the duration of Lent to over twenty fantastic presentations for only $10.99 with coupon code "mother"
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