To Whom Should We Give Our Time?
One
Christ Comes to Us in the Poor
Christ commands us to care for the poor, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and provide for those who lack the necessities of life. Material poverty has not disappeared. Wherever people lack food, shelter, medical care, or the basic necessities of life, Christians must respond with real generosity. But there is another poverty spreading rapidly through the modern world. It may be less visible, but it is everywhere around us, even within our own families.
It is the poverty of people who do not have a friendship with God and who lack deep friendship with others. I call it friendship deficit syndrome. They may have food, a home, an education, and plenty of entertainment. Yet they have no one with whom they can speak honestly. No one who really knows them. No one is helping them carry their burdens. And worst of all, they have no living friendship with Jesus. They are surrounded by people and still profoundly alone.
Two
The New Poverty
We are living through an epidemic of isolation. Marriages become distant. Parents and children live beside one another without really sharing their lives. Siblings drift apart. Elderly parents sit alone. Young people may have hundreds of online connections but very few people they can truly trust. And beyond all this is the deepest poverty: not knowing that God is near, that He loves you, that you can speak to Him from the heart, listen to Him, and live every day in friendship with Him.
Remember how Mother Teresa said, “Calcutta is everywhere,” and warned that the greatest poverty is not material but spiritual, saying, “The most serious form of poverty is to live without God.” Hunger, thirst, and homelessness are tragedies, but they end with death. Spiritual poverty, living without a friendship with God and without friendship with others, that can last forever.
Money can provide food, clothing, housing, and medicine, and we should provide those things when they are needed. But money cannot listen. Money cannot understand. Money cannot become a faithful friend. Money cannot introduce someone to Jesus. For that, we must give something more personal. We must give ourselves.
Three
The New Wealth
At the same time, many of us possess a wealth that previous generations could scarcely have imagined: discretionary time. We say, “I don’t have time.” Yet the average adult gives roughly five hours every day to news, shows, social media, and scrolling. That is nearly one-third of our waking life.
So perhaps the problem is not simply that we have no time. Some of our time is lost to distraction. Some is consumed by responsibilities God never asked us to carry. We must recover that time, not merely so that we can become more productive, but so that we can give ourselves to God and to the people He has entrusted to us.
Time is more valuable than money. Money can be lost and regained. Time can only be given once. Every hour spent is an hour of your life that will never return. This means that one of the greatest acts of Christian generosity today is to give our time to God and to other people.
Four
Give Your Time to God and to Others
First, give time to God. Prayer is friendship with God, and friendship requires time. We cannot develop a deep friendship with Jesus by giving Him only our leftover attention while we remain distracted by everything else. Give Him the first and best part of the day. Speak to Him from the heart. Listen to Him in meditation. Make a resolution and do what He asks.
This must come first, because the most convincing witness is not an argument; it is a life transformed by friendship with Jesus. We cannot lead another person into a friendship we are not living ourselves. Then give your time to the people God has entrusted to you: your spouse, children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and friends, as well as those who have become isolated or distant from God.
Friendship has a simple formula: time + doing something good together + good conversation = friendship.
Share a meal. Go for a walk or a hike. Attend a concert or a game. Play cards. Work out together. Listen to an audiobook. Pray the Rosary. Or simply sit down, put away your phone, ask a good question, and listen.
You do not need to solve everyone’s problems. But you can be present. You can listen. You can become a faithful friend and build a bridge over which another person may someday return to God.
Five
Give Away Your Wealth
Right now, think of the people God has entrusted to you. Who needs more of your time? Who is becoming isolated? Who needs someone to listen? Who is distant from God but might become more open to Him through a genuine friendship with you? We do not give people our time merely as a strategy to change them. We give them our time because we love them. We seek to know, understand, love, and care for them. Then, within that genuine friendship, God may open a door through which we can help them draw closer to Him.
Now look honestly at your use of time. Is it forming friendship with God and others, or is it drawing you further into distraction and isolation? Heaven is eternal friendship with God and the Communion of Saints. Hell is permanent isolation, being closed in upon oneself forever. We are living in an age when friendship is dying. But we possess the wealth needed to restore it.
So make one concrete resolution. Choose one person. Plan one good activity you can do together. Then be ready to have one real conversation. Give them something more valuable than money. Give them your time.