Playing Tag with God and the Kartause Children

A blog post by Chelsea Graham, Fall 2011

This past weekend we had a school trip to Salzburg.  It was absolutely incredible, and I certainly fell in love with the city! I enjoyed it lot more than Vienna, even though Vienna is great too. I did what all the tourists from the United States would do and went to as many of the Sound of Music sights I could, but I also went to churches, markets, etc. We finished the trip with a stop in the  ondsee and went to St.Michael’s Basilica (wedding church from the Sound of Music), which quite possibly is my favorite church we have visited thus far.

    Early this week, I was playing tag with the “Kartause Children,” who are the kids of the staff/faculty of the Austrian campus, and every time I would “tag” them, they told me that where they are is “safety” and that I’m still “it.” No matter where they were, they could never be “it.” Afterwards it struck me, how often do we play “tag” with God? How often do we ask him to change our lives, or come into our lives but then say, “Oh not this part” or “now’s not a good time” or something like that? The Lord doesn’t give up on us, but how long are we going to make him run after us? As students, or people in the work force, or stay-at-home parents, we all lead busy lives, but if the Lord of all of creation can make time for us, and wants so badly to spend time with us, how can we not give him fifteen minutes a day and a holy hour once or twice a week?

Isaiah 43:4 says, “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.” He is so willing to do anything to make us happy, to let us feel his love, but yet, sometimes we just don’t let him in. Or we compartmentalize or box him into our limited understanding of reality. We let him into one aspect of our life, but put our guard up in other parts? We let him in on Sundays during mass, but the rest of the week we put him on the back shelf. Why is that when we’re with our family, God is part of our life, but at work no one even knows that we’re Christians?

This semester in Austria has already been incredible, and I love it, but truthfully I haven’t made the most of if. I’ve gone through the motions of daily mass, praying decades of the rosary throughout the day, but what’s the point if I’m not really going to let the Lord really into my life? What’s the point of all of this if I don’t have a personal relationship with him? If I’m going to thrive this semester it is not  only by traveling to as many places as possible, but by letting God “tag me” so I can chase after him and grow in Him.

I’m looking forward to playing by the new rules!