Sue's Musings

I often tell people who want a deeper relationship with God to treat God like a friend.  If I have a friend, and want to grow closer to that friend, there is one thing above all else that will deepen that friendship:  time.  As I think of all my close friendships, the one thing they all have in common is that we spend time together.  Some of my friends are close, and we get together for lunch, we go to the science museum, we watch movies, we laugh together, we talk about what is important, we talk about what isn’t important.  Many of my friends live far away, but we still talk, email, and get together for the occasional visit.  Above all else, we spend time with each other, in one way or another.  When I don’t make that effort to spend time with a friend, I do not find that “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” as the saying goes.  I find that absence makes the heart forgetful.  So when I neglect to take time to connect with friends on a regular basis, we drift apart, often before we are even aware of it happening.

Our relationship with God is no different.  The more we spend time together, the deeper the relationship, the deeper the sharing, the more significant the support.  When we neglect spending time together, we drift apart.  Time is such a limited commodity in our lives, and yet there is nothing that takes the place of time in building and sustaining relationships.  If you have a pet, think about this with your pet.  How close of a bond would you have with your pet, or more to the point, how close of a bond would your pet have to you, if you never spent time with him?  If you just fed her and let her run a bit, but never played with her?  How much joy would you take in that relationship if you did not look forward to spending time together?  The reality is, there would not be much of a relationship for either of you without time together.

I invite you to make friends with God, to nurture that relationship by spending time together every day.  For some of us, this will be easy.  We have already built time with God into our schedules and are faithful in nurturing that relationship.  For most of us, this will be a challenge.  I know that because even for me, a minister, it is easy to let that time with God be the first thing I sacrifice in a busy day.   I have to be intentional about setting aside that time, or it doesn’t happen.  Wherever you fall on that scale, I invite you to be intentional for these next five weeks in spending time with God.  Begin today to nurture that relationship.  For some of you, it may be a first introduction; for others, the rekindling of a friendship.  For others still, welcome time spent with an old and dear friend.  Wherever you are, begin today to make time with God a habit.

I will be adding daily meditations to the blog – I’ll still have the occasional article from time to time, but I want to add this as a way to encourage all of us to be intentional about taking time to be with God every day.

These first few weeks I will be posting meditations using the them of our relationship with our pets.  For those who have pets, they represent a significant relationship in our life.  I believe that we learn a lot about our relationship with God through our relationship with our pets.  For those who don’t have pets, or are not “pet people,” no fear – not every meditation will be about pets!  Yet the truths I will touch upon go beyond the pet-human bond.  I hope that there will be something for each of you in these meditations, and that they will help us explore our spirituality and deepen our relationship with God, with our pets, and with those whose paths we cross.

We begin by simply taking time to be with God and opening ourselves up to that relationship.  As the meditations progress, we will explore in the safety of that relationship and the spiritual needs and questions that we carry with us in our souls.  How deep you take these meditations is completely up to you.  My prayer for you is that you give yourself to this relationship and find new strengths and refreshment in your relationship with God your relationship with others, your spiritual base, and yes, with your pets too!

Copyright 2011 by Sue Coller.  If you would like to share this with others, please do not copy this, but instead link back to this page.  Thank you.