In his poem “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s neighbor tells him that, “Good fences make good neighbors.” That’s probably very good advice for New England farmers with wandering cows, but as spiritual advice it leaves us on the wrong side of the fence, so to speak. Indeed, Frost gives better spiritual counsel in the very first line of the same poem: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.”
Knowingly or unknowingly, we erect barriers in our lives that keep God at a distance, or at least at arm’s length. We get too busy. We work too much. We worry too much. We drink too much. We have too many things in our lives that, while perhaps not bad or evil in themselves, nevertheless become distractions and obstacles to a life of pursuing God through prayer and worship. We build walls when we should be building gateways that connect God with the rest of our lives, where our work and our time can be made holy by God’s presence and touch.
Ask yourself in silence: What are the barriers that keep me from seeking God? What do I do instead of spending time in prayer?
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