Over the last few weeks I have been so blessed to experience a reneval in my relationship with God. How much or little I see or hear from God in my everyday life, can really go up and down a lot, and since I’ve started working, I’ve had a hard time getting through to the live relationship I once had. Mainly because of me stressing around too much and being too tired to really listen. Also when God seems distant and one has too much to do; “fixing” the relationship to God can easily feel like another one of the many things I “should” do, and therefore be a source of guilt more than a longing to be with the best friend I’ve ever had. Thankfully God is patient and understanding, and has never stopped the attempt of charming me back (although in the meantime it might seem like nothing is happening, from my point of view). How can be a big variation, let’s just say that God has proven to have a much greater fantasy than any human being who has interest in charming someone.
How it started this time, is hard to say, as one event can be traced back to another, but I heard the story of a leader/pastor who spent an hour each morning in prayer. If he had a really hectic or demanding day in front of him, he spent two, as he would be in even greater need of God that day! I loved the principle, and it really challenged me, as I always seem to have too much to do, and have a hard time balancing my time. The amount of time wasn’t the important part for me, but the faith in daring to put God first (and therefore also oneself first, as time with God is giving self so much!). So even if I had a really hectic day coming up, I decided to put time with God in front of all the things I should be doing, and God showed up!! It’s not always as noticeable for me, and I’m not making a strict habit out of it (as it is more about a relationship than a religious habit, for my sake, and whenever I feel I “have to”, it looses the fun-part for me). But I can say without a doubt that I have heard from and experienced God more real the last couple of months than the last 3-4 years altogether, I think!
A practical way to calm down my own thoughts enough to be able to hear whatever God might have to say, is described in Bill Hybles’ book “Too busy not to pray”, where he uses three steps. 1) Writing shortly in a journal about the day before (as he does this in the morning) 2) Writing down a prayer (=what you want to say to God) 3) Listen. Much can be said about the listening-phase, which I won’t touch in on here and now. Let me just encourage you to not settle for a purely theoretical relationship with God, because the real thing is a 1000 times better and more exciting to live!! 
