In contrast, Jesus isn't afraid of doubts, or downtime, or disappointment or boredom - in fact, I might even claim that he finds boredom, disappointment and doubt critical to spiritual growth!" (Yaconelli, 2006, p46) It's as if our church and ministry leaders have an anxious suspicion that God has left the building, and so they stall with jabbering words and meaningless activities in the hope the crowd won't become restless. All silence and stillness is eradicated for fear that young people might find God disappointing, boring or absent. Our churches and ministries seem to be deathly afraid of any kind of downtime. "In youth ministry this is the endless parade of duded-up Christian rock stars, hyperactive activities, word-heavy programmes, and teen devotionals covered in exclamation marks!!!!! There is a tangible sense that God must be dressed up or hidden behind high-energy music and charismatic speakers.To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence." (Merton quoted in James, 2009, p13) "The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps, the most common form, of its innate violence."There is an incredibly subtle and powerfully calculating industry of modern dislocation, where that which is deep and lives in the silence with us is completely ignored.The inner world of the soul is suffering a great eviction by the landlord forces of advertising and external social reality." (John O'Donohue quoted in Freeman, 2007, p95).
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