A One-Way Conversation

So, what’s new?

It struck me, as I was thinking about what to write about this week, that this blog is really pretty much a one-way conversation.  I write and you read.  You’re free to post comments, of course--in fact, you’d be welcome to—but people rarely do, and I don’t really expect you to.  But as a result, I have no real idea whether these blog posts are interesting to you or not.  Google gives me the number of page views, and that gives me some information, but not all that much, really.  I certainly hope you find these posts interesting, but I have no way to know.

It strikes me that too often our prayers are like that, too--a one-way conversation with God.  We pray, and we trust that God will listen.  God’s free to answer, of course, but a lot of times we act as if we really don’t expect God to answer.  In fact, we have no idea whether God is actually interested in our prayers.  We certainly hope God is, but if we act like we don’t expect God to answer, then we really have no way to know.

So here’s what I suggest you do.  The next time you pray, don’t just say “amen” and go about your business.  When you pray, spend some time in silence.  Go ahead and say what you have to say to God, but then be silent.  Try to clear your mind.  It can be hard to do that--it is, after all, hard to intentionally think about nothing--but try it.  It may take some practice before you can do it--if so, then take the time to practice.  Try to just let your mind drift.  Let it go where it will, without trying to direct it in any way.

What you may find is that, in that silence, God will answer.  In fact, sometimes God may have been waiting for us to be quiet so we can hear God’s answer.  Not always--after all, God does not work on our schedule.  God will not always answer just because we’d like an answer.  But we’re probably not going to hear an answer if we don’t take the time to listen.  Sometimes, it takes a silence, a deliberate silence in the presence of God, for us to hear a message that God wants us to hear.

So this week, spend some time in silence with God.  You never know.  You may get just the answer you need to hear.