What would you say to someone who claims they’re too busy for church?

I would say, “You are busy with unimportant things.” Now, I wouldn’t say it quite like that; I would try to be nicer most of the time. Since it’s just you, Nathan, there’s no great pressure to be nice.

I would say, as a historian in particular, that we in America have more time than any other people in the history of mankind. I can think back to my grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Washing clothes was a huge, time-consuming enterprise. The preparation of food was much more time-consuming for many people than it is today for most people. We are a people with more time than almost anybody.

We have time for sports. I enjoy baseball (other sports seem kind of irrelevant after you’ve understood the glories of baseball). Still, the amount of time Americans devote to sports and other forms of recreation is phenomenal. The amount of time parents invest in their children’s sporting activities, as if those children would one day be making millions of dollars from their sporting successes, is amazing. I’m beginning to sound like a grumpy old man, but time is wasted in huge ways with social media and other things.

To think that one day we’ll stand before God and say, “I would’ve loved to have had a relationship with You, but I really didn’t have time because I was doing important things,” should be frightening. So, get to church morning and evening on Sunday and find time for God during the week as well. The lack of time argument is not very persuasive.