Last Sunday my family was eleven minutes late to church. Not just “a couple” minutes, not even “a few” minutes, but ELEVEN minutes late.For added context, let’s just say that when it comes to my family being late for church, this was not a first-time offense.
I thought about it later that day. If earlier that morning, someone had offered us each fifty dollars to simply get to church on time, I guarantee we ALL would have shown up a half hour EARLY, in our Sunday best. In fact, if they had offered each of us twenty bucks in cash to show up on time, you can bet your life our sorry butts would have been in that pew well before the church bells rang. Truth is, had someone informed the Mulligan family that all we had to do was to make showing up to Mass on time our number one priority and we’d each receive just five bucks upon arrival, I’m pretty darn sure we’d have walked through that front door on time, no excuses.
But with nobody standing at the door of the church handing out wads of bills in exchange for honoring the fourth commandment, guess where we were when we should have been already in the car, on our way to church? Let’s see, after waking up just 30 minutes before Mass was to start, 15 year old Jose was taking his own sweet time, sitting there in his boxers finishing breakfast, as if he had no place important to be. Marisol? I hesitate to see this month’s water bill after the length of the shower my fourteen-year-old daughter was busy taking. Elsa? She was pulling piles of clothes out of the closet trying to decide which blouse to wear, which I’m guessing she could have done the night before instead of watching some stupid video of a cat on YouTube. Me? I’ll admit, I was pretty darn concerned with whether the Chargers were going to punt or go for it on fourth and two.
Point is….well, I think you already GET the point. Had it truly been the priority it SHOULD have been, we not only COULD have but WOULD have been there on time. Just as if someone had offered us cold, hard cash for simply NOT being late. Why WASN’T it a priority? Because we chose not to make it one.
Just think, there are places in the Muslim world where Christians risk their very lives to go worship God on the sabbath. And unlike the Mulligan family, they show up on time! Why? Because they love God and make Him priority number ONE in their lives, in their hearts instead of just with their words. They’re willing to literally die for Jesus, while I’m secretly hoping Marisol is late getting out of the bathroom so I can see if see if the Chargers score that first down. And Jose STILL hasn’t put his pants on.
Seriously, we should be jumping for joy that we GET TO go to church WITHOUT risking being beheaded or killed in a machete attack in those Islamic and African nations. Yet we dilly-dally around, shamelessly strolling to Mass eleven minutes late as if that privilege we’ve been granted is totally meaningless.
Forget twenty-dollar bills. I know if they were handing out twenty PESO bills for being on time for church, we’d be there. Just that alone gives me all the proof I need, that whatever lame excuses we seem to come up with on a typical Sunday morning are meaningless. It’s totally, completely our choice, and our priorities. Jose can wake up a half hour earlier. Marisol can take (God forbid!) a bit shorter shower on Sunday. Elsa can choose a blouse the night before. I can just assume the Chargers are gonna blow that first down anyway and turn off the game off. It’s all about priorities.
And if we say God is our first priority, then my gang needs to MAKE him our first priority. So there you go. See ya Sunday, BEFORE the bell rings!