Why would we rather pick up the phone or send an e-mail instead of spending time talking to God? It was a question in a workshop on communications at an area gathering of Friends churches held in Eugene yesterday. My response was to avoid answering the question by commenting on the practice of praying for someone over the phone and of praying for someone with a written prayer sent as an e-mail. Perhaps the real answer to the question (which I did not attempt to give) has something to do with not yet developing the relationship with God that makes him feel as intimate, as close, as interactive as a voice on the other end of the line.