This past week I have been thinking about part of the quote I shared last week from Terry York,

“We tuck things away … and walk away. We can stay away if we are busy enough or if our surroundings, even our liturgical surroundings, are noisy enough. Yes, noisy enough. We have long understood that overloaded calendars and daily schedules are not just about things that must be accomplished, that endless television, radio, and iPod music are not just about entertainment, that drinking is not just about being thirsty, and that eating is not just about being hungry. These are our avoidance techniques and ways to forget … Such avoidance techniques are futile attempts to be God rather than to turn the matters of our deepest prayer over to God. Ironically, even shallow prayer can be a way of avoiding our deepest prayer.” (p 60)

What caught my attention was,

“We can stay away if we are busy enough or if our surroundings, even our liturgical surroundings, are noisy enough…. Ironically, even shallow prayer can be a way of avoiding our deepest prayer.”

When does the practice of religion get in the way of our encounter with God?

How busy is your “church stuff?”  Are you going to enough classes, meetings, services, bible studies? or too many?  Is church so noisy you can’t hear God?  And if you are a “leader” when do you find time to listen?

I am certainly not suggesting these activities are a waste of time, but I would ask you to consider when might activity stand in the way of encounter.