Showing Up

Yesterday, I was looking back at previous pages in a journal, reading over notes I had taken during the talks at the SEEK 2019 Conference. (SEEK is a conference put on by FOCUS where thousands of college students from all over the country come together to pray, worship, and listen to nationally known Catholic speakers.)   I came across a quote I had written down from a talk by Edward Sri and it really hit me over the head.  It was almost as if God was calling me out.  The quote was, “We make time for the things that are most important.  Prayer is not about feelings, it’s about faithfulness.  Love is not about feelings, it’s about faithfulness.  Do you love Jesus enough to show up and pray when you don’t feel it?”  I began thinking about prayer.  Do I pray as much as I should?  Do I continue to pray, even when I don’t “feel” anything?  Do I love Jesus enough to pray when I don’t feel like it?

We can form a lot of habits in our lives.  Some of them might be waking up at the same time every day, drinking plenty of water, and sitting down at the kitchen table every night to eat a big bowl of ice cream.  It’s easy to be consistent in these things.  We probably do not even have to think twice about our daily routines.  What about our prayer lives?  When it comes to prayer, there are a lot of questions we can ask.  Are we consistent?  Do we make it a priority?  Is it a strong habit?

One great thing about prayer is that we can pray throughout our whole day, at any random time and in whatever we may be doing.  However, it is also important to take a chunk of time out of each day to just be with God one-on-one and deepen our relationships.  God knows all of our thoughts, desires, and fears.  He knows everything that is in our hearts but still wants us to bring it all to Him.  God wants us to pour ourselves out and in return, He wants to pour His love out onto us.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, not always.  We are busy.  We don’t hear God.  We don’t feel anything.  It’s boring and dry.  We don’t know if He hears us.  Since we are human, these thoughts can easily pop into our minds.  This is when we need to stop and refocus.  We need to remind ourselves that a relationship with God is not about feelings.  It’s about growing closer to Him.  It’s about love and sacrifice.  

​Do we love God enough to show up and pray even when we don’t feel like it?  God showed up for us 2,000 years ago and he shows up for us now, in every moment of every day.  Prayer doesn’t need to be extravagant.  We can just be.  We can take a break from the hustle and bustle of the world and listen in silence.  Take some time today and every day to sit still and rest in His presence.

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