I know you're busy, but this is important

Epiphany A different kind of workout motivation.

I know you're busy, but this is important

We just ended a season of little league baseball andsoftball. Well, regular season ended. We just started All Stars for our youngest.

Having multiple kids in sports is B-U-S-Y. We were at theball fields every night of the week and most of the day each Saturday. The youngesthad a few different tournaments, and if you know the softball tournament worldyou understand that you live at the ball fields those weekends. Games on Fridaynight, all day Saturday and all day Sunday.

The baby’s second to last regular season tournament was exhausting.It was a hot weekend, my husband was working nights the first part so I wassolo with all of the kids at the fields the first night, and then the secondday I was literally at the fields for 9 hours. There was no time for laundry,no time to get ready for school for the week, no time for the rest I desperatelywanted. Getting home that night we hardly had the energy for showers before itwas time to go to bed. The next day would be a Sunday and another full day ofgames- however the first wasn’t an early start and we didn’t need to be at thefields till after 11am! I hit my pillow that Saturday night and thought tomyself if we skip church this one weekend, God will understand. We need tosleep in! We are all exhausted. Missing one week won’t hurt.

I seriously wrestled with this thought. But after waking thenext day, I got all of us up for church like every other Sunday. Wepacked clothes to change into for after church (we'd have to change in our van because the time in between Mass andgetting to the fields wouldn’t be enough to get home.) We hurried to get ready.We hurried to pack a cooler and snacks for the field. We hurried out the doorto drive to church.

Kneeling in the pews that morning at our parish, the busy andthe rush and the go go go all slowed down. I had been so stressed, and so worn out, butall of that worry and that weary disappeared. I realized how badly I needed to beat Mass then. My real rest, my real rejuvenation, comes when I’m grounded in theTruth of who I am, who we are as a family and what our foundation is. I thankedGod that He didn’t let me listen to the lie that told me I didn’t need to bethere. I would have missed out that day on the only real source of peace thereis in this world.

I’ve been listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast andthe other day Fr. Mike talked about how many of us DESIRE Heaven but most of usdon’t CHOOSE Heaven. That resonated with me. How often have I said that I ofcourse want an eternity in Heaven, but I haven’t really been choosing God now? I’vebeen so bold to assume I have the time to choose Him later. To do better later.To love my neighbor more later. To ask for forgiveness later, as if that timeis guaranteed to me. I’ve been “too busy” to choose all of that now. But the truth is that I need to put first things first, no matter what my schedule looks like.

So. I know you’re busy. But if you haven’t prayed today,here is your sign! If you haven’t been to church in a while, maybe there is a bigreason you opened this blog post today. This world will throw all sorts ofdistractions your way, but none of them will fulfill you in the way you werecreated for. True love really does exist.

You are loved so immensely and you deserve to live in thatlove, every single day. But this has to be your choice. You’ll have to give your permissionbecause true love isn’t forced.

Again, I know you’re busy. But this is important. Like, lifeand death importance. For real.