Are Teenagers Too Busy For God? By Rania Awad (Nov. ’01)
There are not many people who ever stop to think, "Where is God's place in my life?" With our coaches ordering us to be at every practice, going to meetings before and after school, and homework running our lives, how is it that we can never find room to take two hours from our Sunday and step into His house? Why can't we make friends with people in our church, or why don’t we join the youth group? The most popular answer to these questions is usually, "I don't have time!"
Now, I'm sure there are a lot of us who are organized enough to deal with participating in sports, doing our homework, and going to church. But, there are the rest of us who put church aside. Sometimes, we don't realize the importance of worshiping God and how much it could help us with our everyday activities. If we did, going to church might prove to be more important to us. Nobody wants a load on his back that he can't carry. Balancing your life between family, school, sports, clubs, and church is actually a fairly light load. The keyword is Balance. Focusing only on making varsity soccer, going to the fitness room before and after school everyday, saving the homework until 9:00 P.M., and not spending quality time with the family is considered an uneven load. Where is God in that picture? If that were to be your life, you probably wouldn't have your church even in the smallest corner of your head. God would not even be a priority in that type of life.
So, how do we make room for God in our lives? Let me suggest a couple ways that might help. Picture your life as a dartboard, with God and your church in the center of the target. Then picture everything else in your life (i.e. sports, work, school, clubs, homework) floating around the center. If you do this, you will soon start to see balance in your life. Another way that might help would be to wake up each Monday morning, after being in church the day before, and keep your life focused on going to church the following Sunday. In other words, make going to church a priority, and pencil your other weekly activities around it. This should be how your weekly planner works. By doing this, you will soon realize that you do indeed have time for God. You will have time to take a weekly journey to His house on Sunday morning. You will have time to get involved with various church activities, like service projects for the community. And you will start getting to know more people at your church. Not only that, but you will most likely start feeling like a better person, helping you to succeed at even more things in your life.
Remember, all you need is a strong sense of balance, which starts with God, not the other way around.