It’s September, and it seems a sense of order has returned. The unhurried and undemanding days of summer and respites from the daily grind are over. Kids are back to the daily rigor of school schedules. Usual traffic patterns with more cars on the road have returned. School buses are once again slowing us down on our morning commute. Organized family routines are re-established.
Psychologists tell us that being organized reduces stress, improves mental health, enhances productivity, increases self-confidence and builds stronger relationships. So it should go without saying that it is good to be organized.
I do admit, though, that I am not always the most organized person. A quick glance at my desk will tell you that.
My wife, however, is far more organized than I am, God Bless her. It’s really great to have someone around who can keep a household like mine from the brink of chaos.
She’s even come up with this brilliant organizational plan: so brilliant, in fact, that it’s magnetized to the refrigerator. It’s a household chore list broken down into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly chores. When it’s actually followed, which does happen from time to time, it’s great. There is a reduction of stress, and family relationships are much smoother.
There is something comforting about organization. That’s why we organize our day, our time, our events, our activities, our food pantries, our tools, etc. There’s even a whole industry to organize closets.
But what do we organize in our lives for God?
In Matthew Chapter 10, Jesus says: “He who loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.”
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of the Word on Fire ministry, said that the heart of the spiritual life is to love God and then to love everything else for the sake of God.
This, according to Bishop Barron, is why Jesus says that we have a very absolute and clear-cut choice to make. Jesus must be loved first and last, and everything and everyone else in our lives has to find its meaning in relation to Him.
In other words, we need to organize our lives for God.
To organize our lives for God, we need to align our goals with God’s Word. We need to ask ourselves what is the meaning of all that we do in relation to God. For most of us, the spiritual meaning is already there. The challenge is to recognize that spiritual meaning and bring it to the forefront of our mind, so we are confident that the work we are doing we are doing as disciples of Christ.
To help us organize our lives for God, we need prayer, we need Scripture, we need the sacraments. Where is prayer in our daily planner? Have we set a daily Rosary as one of our goals? Is reading Scripture on our to-do list? Can we check that one off at the end of the day, or were all our other tasks more important? How about Confession? Is it in our monthly calendar along with committee or board meetings?
So take out that planner, write up that to-do list, pop open that calendar app, set up alerts and reminders for quiet time with our Lord, add the spiritual to the schedule.
Be sure, however, to leave a little space open for divine interruptions: you know, those pesky times when we are uber focused on getting something done when suddenly – bam – someone needs our attention, our focus, our talents, our service. I know that can be frustrating. I believe that the feeling of frustration is the body telling us that our will at that moment may not be aligning with God’s. Being open to divine interruptions allows God’s will to unfold in our lives and in the lives of others.
Including spiritual activities in our daily planners can help us to start organizing our lives for God, but we shouldn’t view them in the same way as our other activities; they are not a chore. Pope Francis said that “prayer is freedom, not obligation.”
While we know that organization reduces stress, improves mental health, enhances productivity, increases self-confidence and builds stronger relationships, organization for God reduces worry, improves spiritual health, enhances charity, increases selflessness and builds a stronger relationship with God.
Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.
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