In our present century technology has abounded. The communication boundaries between countries, remote cities and towns have been broken by the latest advances in cellular and digital services. Long gone are the days of party lines, written letters, and telegrams. And yet, in the midst of all the technological communication that exists at our finger-tips, people are still lonely and searching for meaning and relationships.

Whoever would have thought that a person could go onto a computer and meet another person that would one day be their spouse? Years ago it would have been unthinkable to hear of someone breaking up with a boyfriend over a text-message. Yet, these are the norm for the current day in which we live.

As a society we’ve become so used to the rapid communication that’s available to us that we get irritated if someone doesn’t respond in a few minutes to one of our emails. People in the same office communicate more via email or instant messaging than they do by simply opening their mouth to the person in the next cubicle. We want interaction now, with little effort, and little face-time.

As Christians we’ve allowed the same influence of technology to influence our relationship in the church and with God. We want to say a ten second prayer and get an answer back in five. We want easy friendships that don’t require effort – after all, there’s always another person a text-message away. But can I remind us that God doesn’t email, He doesn’t instant message, and He doesn’t text us. God requires time – the real kind of time that makes us come face-to-face with Him.

Taking real time for God has become almost ludicrous and old fashioned for the current generation. It seems out-dated and something our grandparents would do – people who didn’t have it as “good” as us. And yet, when we compare the relationships of the old with the relationships of the new, who really had or has it “good?”

In the old days people would come from miles away to visit their family or friends. The meeting became a celebration filled with hope and anticipation to see the one that they had not seen for so long. The visits were cherished and written about in journals and books.

Now, we send pictures over the web, we see our loved ones in videos streamed from other states or countries. We hold virtual meetings and sign documents digitally – all in the name of technology. There is little face-to-face time and slowly people are growing more out of touch with each other than they’ve ever been.

How is that possible? It’s possible because a computer cannot convey a person’s spirit. The most it can do is show a snapshot or record a word but real relationship is built when people are side-by-side, speaking and interacting together. And so it is with God. He desires our time. He desires that we get some alone time with Him instead of just sending him a quick prayer like we do an email. If we as human beings can feel so alone in the fast-paced-technological-world we live in, how must it make God feel when we interact with Him by giving him a few “text” messages and feel that we’ve communicated enough for the day?

Get away from your computer. Get away from your text messages and emails. Get away from your fast-paced job and lifestyle and go back to the basics. It was humanity that created technology in order to make things easier – but true relationships can’t be made easier by human solutions. True relationships require time.

Talk to God today.