How to Spend Time with Jesus in the Chaos

Reading Time: 6 min 

Life can be so crazy, even with all of our attempts to prioritize, to cut back. We all come to the realization that like nature, there are ebbs and flows, times of business and times of rest. 

The birth of a baby, the start of a new job, the death of family member, chronic sickness, and major projects both at home and work can all throw off the routine and leave us in a state of upheaval.

 As a mom, how do we prioritize our relationship with God when we haven’t had a shower in three days?  And how do we not sink into frustration and despair when EVERY TIME (cue dramatic sigh), we go to spend some time with our Heavenly Father, our toddler wakes up screaming from his nap (after we just spent 30 minutes getting him to sleep), or our dog starts barking ferociously at the mailman?

Is it even realistic to assume that a life with God is possible when there are so many demands on our attention?

What does it even look like to spend time with God as a busy mom? These are the questions that run through every mom’s head from time to time as we heave a sigh of exhaustion and get up to put out yet another fire.

What would it look like to live a life where our everyday tasks became an act of worship to our King? Where in the still and chaotic ordinary moments we can be present, looking and waiting on God.

How would it feel to take our ordinary moments and let God transform them, allowing us to live our lives with abundant joy?

1. Is It Important?We have heard countless times all of the reasons why we should spend time with Jesus. Intellectually we get it, but it can seem so unproductive, there are projects compete, and bathrooms to clean, and to stop and just BE can seem well, a cross between a lazy and an extravagant luxury. God will understand, we tell ourselves, when life calms down, when Jr. isn’t screaming at the top of his lungs,  then you will definitely spend quality time with Jesus.
   

    

   If we are not intentional we can live our lives always responding to the loudest crisis, sacrificing our spiritual health, on the altar of productivity, and the urgent.   We will miss out on the most foundational part of life; a life lived in intimate relationship with Jesus. 

    

   It says, in 1 Kings, 19:11-13, “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”

     Would you be able to hear God if he came as a gentle whisper?

 Being a follower of Jesus, at its core, is all about a love relationship with God.  It is about daily surrender, the laying down of your to-do lists, your hopes, and dreams to the one who lavishly loves you.  

1 John 4:15-16 it says this, “Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.”

Attempting to follow Jesus, without actually spending time with him, is like trying to live our lives with both hands and feet tied behind our back. When you are tired and worn out, when you are frustrated and depressed, when you are struggling, God calls out to you, his beloved child, saying, “Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.”(Matt. 11:28)

I read that verse and think of a refuge, a place where all of my burdens, my physical frailties, and my relationship woes, are all laid before God; and he hands me a thick blanket, and encourages me to sink into a place of deep and abiding rest, secure in the knowledge that he has  everything under control.

 all given over to God, and he hands me a thick

Ephesians 3:14-19 says this, “And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”

There is an adventure that comes with experiencing the love of the Father. Call out to him, meet him, and let him show you the depth of his love for you. I can truly say that your life will never be the same.

2. Is It Possible?

When you feel that you can’t add another thing to your schedule or start to wonder if life with God is possible for a busy mom; ask yourself these questions: 

We can get so caught up in moving through life that we don’t stop to periodically ask ourselves why are we doing what we are doing?  We need to come to grip with the season of life that we are in, giving ourselves grace, and embrace meeting with God in the limitations of that season.

Susanna Wesley is an encouraging example to mothers everywhere, of a woman who understood the trials of a busy life, but who thoroughly embraced the joys and constraints of her current season of life. A homeschooling mother of eleven children (including her famous sons John and Charles Wesley) she was known for being very serious about her faith.

“One of the most dramatic examples of how busy and crowded the house often was is that as a signal to her children to be quiet, Susanna would sometimes sit down and pull her apron over her head so that she could pray in peace.”  Eric Metaxas captured this telling moment, in his book, 7 Women and the Secret of their Greatness.

Life with God is not only possible, but it is necessary (cue screaming kid).   

3.  IS IT ORDINARY?

How can we embrace the season of life that we are in? By not regulating God to that quiet, special time we title, devotions, but look to include him in the ordinary moments of our day.  

Invite him into your day when you wake up. Pray for yourself and others while you are washing the dishes.  Embrace the moments of silence by just enjoying His presence while in the shower, or on the way to work.  Turn off the podcast and talk, or hang out with God while mowing the lawn.

God is always present with us.  Ask God for the grace to be present with Him, to love Him, and to enjoy Him all throughout the day. 

Brother Lawrence, a French monk who lived during in the 17th century, is a great example of someone who made the ordinary things extraordinary by doing them unto God. 

He was assigned the monastery kitchen, which he did not enjoy, and in the midst of the unglamorous ordinary tasks, he decided to spend time with God, worshipping and praising him.

He said, “We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

So, join me by inviting God’s presence, and offering the best, worst and in-between moments of our day as an act of worship to him.

What about you? What are your favorite ways to meet with Jesus in your everyday life?

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Interested in Exploring this Topic Further?  

Check out these titles:

1. Liturgy of the Ordinary – Tish Harrison Warren

2. Death By Suburb – David L. Goetz

bout you? What are your favorite ways to increase your child’s awareness of God? 

 If you try any of these activities, let us know! Leave a comment, and don’t forget to follo