Life is hard. And busy. It doesn’t matter what college or workplace you are at: In today’s day and age, everyone is always busy, or so it seems. There is always another task to be completed and somewhere else to dash off to. Being present is a lost art.

As college students, we are constantly pressured to be as involved as possible. It is pushed on us to do as much as possible to improve our resumes that we as students often end up overworked and without free time. I am guilty of this, too.

I am in a business fraternity, social sorority, write on Odyssey, and am spontaneously involved in a variety of other clubs. I typically have at least two hours of meetings every day after classes, and sometimes as many as four hours.

Being involved is essential for your growth, don’t get me wrong. You should always strive to be as accomplished as you can in your field, whether it is as a student, professional, or parent. But being constantly on the go and busy leaves little to no room for God to work in your life.

It is an incredibly hard line to walk between being committed to our passions and letting them inspire us, and having those worldly responsibilities consume us. It may be difficult to view our jobs, schoolwork, and extracurriculars as harmful when they make us so happy, but ultimately anything that is hindering our relationship with God is disastrous.

A major roadblock to this open space is the new and developing worldly things we have. We don’t realize how much time we truly spend on our phones, tablets, laptops, computers, and TVs. We as a society are incredibly lustful now, lusting after not only other humans, but everything they have that we don’t.

I first heard of this concept of open space for God my first semester at college. I was at a group Bible study session and immediately knew I was guilty of over-committing myself to everything besides God. The next day I swore I would try to leave an open gap for God to work in my life. Like He always does, He delivered after I opened myself up to Him.

I was given the amazing opportunity to shoot a Dear World portrait in my new free time. Afterward, I was also asked to be a Storyteller at the event Dear World was hosting on campus. I normally would have automatically denied because I was too busy, but I had just pledged to give God some more of my time. Being able to share my story with my fellow students and residents of Oxford was a life-changing experience.

If God can bless me with such a monumental experience after practicing leaving open space for Him for less than 24 hours, then imagine what He can do in our lives when we make this a daily habit.

Maybe you start getting up 30 minutes early to have some alone time with God or learn to delegate your work and extracurricular tasks better. I had to actively start clearing my schedule of unnecessary tasks and effectively do my homework so that it wasn’t always lingering.

Prioritizing God isn’t easy, although the concept of it seems to be. In order to truly grow closer to God, we need to give Him ample time and room to work for our good. When we give Him the ability to creatively shape our free time for His good, then we are allowing ourselves to grow closer to Him through our sacrifices.