Drifting Away

So last week I took almost three days completely off.  I did a few things Wednesday morning, and helped with the Onida community Thanksgiving service at noon.  But after that, I did not come back to the church until Saturday.  I went to Armour and spent Thanksgiving with my parents.  We came back Thursday night, but Friday we went to Pierre and did some shopping and some visiting.  We did visit some people from the parish, so some of it could be considered work, I suppose.  Still, I was completely out of my routine.  I left the church on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and did not come back until Saturday morning.

I found it kind of hard to get back into my routine when I came back.  Don’t get me wrong about that.  I still very much enjoy the things that I do as pastor, and that includes the office work.  I did not resent having to go back and do it.  I just felt kind of--off.  Like it was strange to be back in the office after a few days away.  Like something was not quite right, somehow, even though I did not know what or why.

You know what got me back on the beam?  It’ll probably seem obvious once I tell you.  Prayer.  I have a regular prayer time during the morning.  It’s actually a prayer walk--I walk around the outside of the church, praying as I go.  During that prayer time, I got back in touch with God, and I felt right about doing my office work again.

I realized, at that moment, that I really hadn’t prayed very much while I’d been gone.  I’d said prayers during meals.  I’d prayed briefly at various times.  But I had not had a concentrated prayer time where I could really focus on feeling close to God.  And because I had not done that, I had drifted away.  Not far away, but the process had started.  I needed to have that concentrated prayer time to feel close to God again.

It’s amazing how easy it is for us to drift away from God, and how quickly it can happen.  It was only two and a half days, and it’s not even like I had totally ignored God in those two and a half days.  I had not intentionally moved away from God.  I had simply drifted away, without even realizing I was doing it.  In the short time of two and a half days, I had drifted away, and I needed to get back.

Do you ever start to drift away from God?  As I found out, it’s easy to have it happen.  It happens without us meaning to let it happen.  It can happen without us even realizing it’s happening.  Maybe you’ve had it happen to you.  Maybe it’s happening to you now.

If it is, pray.  Get back in touch with God.  Find some time for some concentrated prayer, where you can focus on feeling close to God.  It does not necessarily have to take a long time.  It might, but it might not.  It takes however long it takes.  But try it.  Try going to God and truly opening yourself up to God.  I suspect if you do, you’ll start to feel close to God again.  That feeling of having drifted away will be gone.  You’ll feel God with you again, leading you, guiding you, helping you through life.

It’s easy to drift away from God.  But it’s not that hard to get back.  God wants to be close to you.  Focus on getting close to God again.