I was talking to a good friend of mine recently who is on staff with FCA.  As we were talking about our spiritual journeys, he brought up the fact that we often teach people to simply be better Christians instead of teaching them to actually know God.  But wait a minute, aren't those the same things??  That is the question and the issue at hand.  As we talked, I saw the dichotomy.  We can just teach people to be "better" Christians by doing more stuff for God - giving more, praying more, reading more, serving more, more, more, more.  Yet sometimes we are not teaching them to know God.  Maybe God wants them to rest, maybe God wants them to do something totally different.  I think there is a difference here that we have to address.  What we want is for people to know God, to be at peace with Him, to be comfortable with Him, to hear His still small voice in their lives and respond, but often we are content with people who will just do more in the name of 'spiritual growth', which may simply be spiritual activity. 

I know this sounds confusing, and parts of it are, but I would challenge you to contemplate it.  Are you working hard to actually know God better, or are you simply trying to be a 'better' Christian by doing more?  Let's not settle for simple activity, let's stretch out for a real relationship, which is a radically different thing from religious activity.