Voicemails and one-sided conversations

I have been told by numerous friends that I leave very entertaining messages on their voicemail. I would call it something more like- ramblings on their voicemail. This is how I see it- if I am calling a friend, there is a reason I am calling, so even if they aren’t there I’m either going to tell them whatever I wanted to tell them or I am going to make sure to ramble on about random stuff as if they were there. Makes long distant friendships easier in my opinion.

For someone who doesn’t understand a person who talks fairly fast, my voicemails probably aren’t very audible, because I babble. For some reason after I left my last babbling message I started to think about prayer life and how unfortunately it’s terribly easy to just babble off our prayers to God as if we were leaving them on His voicemail. There is a lesson I have learned in the last 6 months- phones are bad communicators. I don’t care if it’s a voicemail, a text message, or even a phone call- in person is so much better. (Perhaps that’s the reason I don’t really like using the phone.)

So if phones aren’t the best form of talking to people, why do we have a phone-like conversation with God? Yes I know it’s hard to have a conversation with a God who isn’t visible like a person is, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a dignified conversation with Him, because He is present in our lives. He does hear what we have to say, and He also wants to be heard.

Ever been in a one sided-conversation? The other person goes on and on and you wonder if they remember you are even there. It’s not fun. It doesn’t seem very fair, and a one sided- conversation doesn’t really benefit either side much. One person does all of the talking for their benefit, but really all they are doing is saying what is rolling around in their head all the time and someone else happens to be around. And that poor other person doesn’t get a word in, not a hint of advice, or even encouragement. They are basically being used.

Is that what we do to God when we just carelessly throw Him our prayers and hope He does something about them?

We live in a culture where everything has to be quick, multi-tasking is a must, and quiet/solitude is rare, if ever. I know my prayer life is affected by all of those things. I would say I have a prayer life, and I would say I am in constant communication with God but it’s more like sending Him text messages. I randomly think of a friend in need so I throw a prayer up. I remember how a friend is having a hard time, so out goes another quick prayer. I think of something I’m grateful for so I include it while I’m thinking of it, but we lack the other end of communication. We wonder why we don’t hear from God when we throw up our prayers to Him and then turn our music or tv louder.

This week I am focusing on quiet. Kind of rare. I have been driving back and forth from Kalamazoo to Byron Center listening to anything I can find on the radio. I honestly am not a huge lover of Christmas music and I can only take so much, so I skip from one song to the next hoping to find something to block out the silence in my car. Then I realized, I’m blocking out any chance of hearing from God. So I drive to work in silence- honestly, I think it’s way better than listening to songs you really don’t care that much about anyways.

There is something refreshing about the quiet. Kind of like a fresh cold drink of water. And for some reason I think God appreciates the quiet. He appreciates the chance that we might hear His still small whisper. Because God doesn’t shout, so if we continually interrupt Him in our one-sided conversation He will continually whisper gently, hoping that His soothing voice will bring us back from the chaos in our lives. And when we send Him those rambling voicemail prayers, He doesn’t ignore them, and He will respond if we let Him and if we don’t let the loud music, tv, and conversations we have get in the way.

What if you knew that God was waiting around trying to tell you something, or perhaps He’s been whispering it for a long time but you have shut Him out? What if these were the words your really really needed to hear? A piece of wisdom… a word of encouragement… or maybe something your heart has longed to hear for a long time now. Would you be willing to sit and listen and wait? Would you be willing to stop talking so that He could get a word in, and would you be willing to just be still in His presence? Maybe that’s what we all need more of. More God time and less voicemails and one- sided conversations.