Relationship not Religion

I've just finished reading this book called "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young. It's an amazing book and brings up some very interesting and relevant points. Doubtless I'll be writing about more of them later on, but for now I want to focus one point, that is that God is all for relationship, not religion.
This may seem like a strange concept, especially for those of us who always though that religion, believing in God and going to Church every Sunday, was what God wanted. But if we look at religion as what it really is, this concept starts to make a lot more sense.
The Collins Paperback English Dictionary defines religion as:
1. belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine or to have control over human destiny
2. any form of institutionalised expression of such a belief: the Christian religion.

Not that any of this is a bad thing, but this can all happen without any closeness to God (we all know you can worship someone, maybe Brad Pitt, and not be close to them at all). In such a way a person can be religious without really being close to God at all, and religion can simply become a ritual, a thing done to stop God's wrath and judgement. But this isn't what God wants at all!

God really wants you to be close to Him, and relationship, rather than religion, is a much better way for this to be achieved. A relationship involves sharing, love and respect, something that religion can lack. Relationship can provide fulfilment, happiness, love and trust. By all means keep worshipping God, because that is important too, but remember that His love is much better experienced in relationship with Him.
We also must remember that relationship doesn't start and end with God. It's important to maintain relationship with people as well. After all when God created the church it wasn't a building or an institution, it was a brother&sister-hood of His faithful. Church is not only about the sermon (although that can help us learn a lot!), it's also about the relationship between you and the other faithful.