it is hard to follow a 2000 year old radical

I think the roughest part of following Jesus is just the fact that it is so dependant on faith. We no longer have Jesus physically walking next to us. I really wish he was here in person. It is so hard to follow someone you can't see and faith is such a difficult thing to have in the 21st century, it sometimes feels weird telling people that you are pursuing a guy who lived 2000 years ago. I have just learned the importance of prayer and scripture in drawing near to God. I think it is our gateway to a two way conversation and relationship with him. We can hear about God or what he has to say through scripture and then we can respond back in prayer and I am starting to believe that the two must go together. We need to not just pray, we need to listen and we also can't just listen, we need to respond. A relationship is always based on a two-way conversation and it would make sense that God wants that kind of relationship with us.