We absolutely need to withdraw from society and distraction - God is inside And outside us

Responding to a blog post at William Wildblood's Meeting the Masters I wrote:

"Remember that when Jesus wanted to commune with God more fully he withdrew from the crowds and towns and went into the deserts and mountains, and this remains true today, if not always literally, then certainly symbolically and psychologically."

The point is well made - if even Jesus needed to withdraw from the distractions of other people, noise, busyness... then how much more do we?

And yet how few people do this? (maybe a couple of weeks a year of holiday... but then the holiday often involves two or three days of miserable travelling, and may itself be filled with frantic activity and excessive intoxication!)

In almost everybody's life, there is ample possibility of withdrawal, every day; If it is made a priority. Which it should be, because withdrawal is a necessity, not a luxury.

A great strength of the Christian way is that it understands God as both outside of us and within us (because we are God's actual children, hence divine - albeit embryonically).

According to our current challenges and circumstances, we can therefore seek and find God both within and without; as a feeling and as a relationship.

And our assurance is that the necessary help will always be given if asked-for, listened-to and accepted (remembering that sometimes it is better for us not to get help but to do our own best to overcome our own difficulties - indeed this is the normal and usual thing); and that true help is ultimately directed at our eternal well-being, not necessarily or often what makes us happiest in this mortal life).

Read the whole thing...

http://meetingthemasters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/what-is-one-thing-needful.html