Amidst Daily Distractions: Come Near To Me

I look around my life and most everyone I know is distracted with their smartphones, family life, work schedules, friends, sporting events, politics, vacations, advancing up the company ladder, shopping for and managing their ‘stuff’, and worries and sufferings. I wonder if anyone feels truly at peace with these things consuming their lives. There’s an emptiness attached to these distractions if we make them the center of our universe.

We’re a lot like the first disciples. Peter was distracted by fear and Thomas with doubt. Likewise, during a profound moment, the disciples were more concerned with sleeping then praying with Jesus. Even when the disciples awakened, they became distracted again.

How true is that of our lives? In this time of Resurrection, have you found yourself awakened with joy, only to become distracted again? God is calling you to draw near again.

Over the last several months while challenged in my own distractions, I increasingly hear Christ whispering: Put down the phone. Let the work go. Empty yourself of wanting. You don’t need to do that right now. You do need to sit and rest with me for a little while. Come visit me and embrace My presence.

So I have tried to find God in the midst of these distractions. To put the phone down for a couple minutes. To re-center myself in the middle of the work day. To reflect on how God in working in my daily life: Who did He show up in today? How did He speak to me? What is He trying to teach me through this experience or this suffering? What do I have to thank Him for? When I fail, He reminds me of His desire to be close and draws me back…over and over again.

Christ is calling us to a life of prayerful living with Him beyond Sunday Mass – to find Him amidst daily life and to lay down our distractions and comforts, which often become our idols, and to embrace how He reveals Himself in our daily life.

Come near.