Out of sight, out of mind

Throughout my life, time and time again, I have developed casual friendship or acquaintanceship  with people at my workplace and even with friends of close friends. I might have even hung around with them on a regular basis. But the moment this 'hanging out together' stops they become a distant memory or not even in that in most cases. Chances are that I am unlikely to even think about them and in most cases, I'm likely to even forget their names.

But when it comes to people I considered close, even if I haven't met them in years they will continue to come into my thoughts time and again. In both cases, it is a result of the quality of the relationship I enjoyed with those people. As far as the former category is concerned, the relationship was very superficial. It was for the sake of momentary pleasures. In the case of the latter, it was less about the sensory pleasures and more about the intellectual and emotional connect.

The same is the case with our relationship with God. Many of us go to the temple or church as a matter of course. We sit through the worship service, feel good about the fact that we attended church, maybe even feel good about the message we heard or the songs we sang, and then forget all about it the moment we step outside the doors of the church. If we stop attending church the chances are God will remain a distant memory who comes into our mind only when trouble strikes.

But to enjoy a relationship with God, we need to invest our time in developing a closer relationship. We need to move beyond the sensory and immerse ourselves in developing the emotional and intellectual side of this relationship. And this might require some discipline at our end:
1) Taking out the time first of all
2) Spending time actually thinking about the verses we are reading rather than just a cursory glance
3) Evolving our prayer life beyond just muttering a few feel good words
4) Making prayer a two-way conversation rather than a request list
5) Meditating on our life and spending quiet time trying to listen to our inner voice

At least these are the few things I can think of. Would be great to hear or read more on this. 

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