Consider for a moment Blaise Pascal, the great philosopher. He tells us that much of our life is taken up with diversions and distractions.
We distract ourselves from the really fundamental questions. Think of all the things we are preoccupied with on a day-to-day basis. Only when those are set aside, Pascal said, the really great questions emerge. And attachments…wealth, power, pleasure and honor being the big four. These attachments are shouting at us and luring us, tempting us all the time.
What’s God saying?
What does God want?
We have to go into a silent and deserted place in order to hear.
A place where the attachments and diversions are set aside.
That’s why spiritual people have an instinct for a silent and deserted place.
