All religions have this sense of the nearness of God in them but in our times we have dressed up our religion too much in words, we have talked God out of court, made God a book of rules, pushed God into the mind, shoved God at arm's length, like births, marriages and deaths, Sundays and sickness, like you would call in a solicitor or doctor or garage mechanic if the car broke down.

Not a God who is always around and alongside like a good friend. Not a God who breathes in us, not a God you can praise if you go to the toilet well (like St. Julian of Norwich, the most beautiful of English Saints) - oh no my dear, nothing like that.

Perhaps experience of God - for those who are looking for it - is hard to find because we are looking in the wrong place. So much of the time we are not in the here and now ourselves. Many of us spend so much time either in the past or in the future. We are either going over what happened, wishing for the good old days, regretting what we have done, trying to cover up our mistakes; or planning ahead, deciding what to do next, wondering how we shall fit it all in, wishing it was "time off", or "shall we be able to afford it?" We are constantly distracted from the here and now, rushing through today from yesterday on the way to tomorrow. We are frequently moving so fast doing things now, in order to get onto the next thing. We gulp food down "in order to ..."

It's a gallon into a pint pot, let alone a quart. We want to be doing everything because that is "really living".

But God is not in the past, nor in the future. Here and now is all there is (ask anyone who is recovering from a severe illness or accident). Eternity, actually, begins here and now, it's the only place you'll find it, not in a golden spot beyond the horizon.

But we think we have to wait for it because we are not here and now.

More than this, we have become conditioned to being distracted (to rush from one thing to the next) so that if we are not distracted by the next thing or interminable action replays we don't know what to do.

Suggest to people that they sit, just sit, for a half hour and do nothing - just Be Here - no planning, no calculations, no viewing, no I'm-doing-this-because-it's-good-for-me - and hear the screams - HALF AN HOUR! You must be joking.

There is a verse in one of the ancient poems in the bible - "Be still and know that I am God". It can be calming and strengthening to find a 5 minutes to be still for awhile and say that over to ourselves - quietly, over and over.

Try to find such a space from day to day as you can. You might have some surprises as bit by bit you have that special slow time and centre in on yourself. Others have. All through history.