Blah, Blah, Blah
September 12, 2009 by kristinemac
Filed under Prayer
Have you ever been so pre-occupied when someone says something to you half the sentence is missing? I hate when that happens. A person will be talking to me and for no good reason my mind randomly jumps the rails. One moment I’m listening, following the context of the question or statement. The next I’m thinking of a task I’ve forgotten, or what I should make for dinner.
I’ll be standing there with no idea what the person is saying. Their lips are moving, words are gushing forth, but the sound has cut off. I simply have no idea what they’ve said to me. The only thing I’m hearing is "blah, blah, blah."
Some times I’ll play it totally cool. Try figuring out what the heck they’ve just said by recalling the earliest bits or paying closer attention to the ending bits Answer or respond while silently hoping I’m giving an appropriate response. Most times I suck it up, apologize for my inattention, ask for the person to repeat what they’ve said.
My husband likes to call these my ADOS (Attention Deficit "Oh Shiny") moments. Too much other stuff going on for my brain to process or something unusual catches my notice. It makes me think of the scene from Bruce Almighty when Bruce sets up a computer program to recieve prayers from the faithful. He gets so overwhelmed he puts the program on an automatic read and respond. Not so different for me really. You could say in those moments where I lose the thread of the conversation, I go on a kind of mental automatic response. Responding without truly having listened.
Thankfully this is never the case when we are speaking to God. He always hears and responds to our prayers and petitions. Sometimes it can seem as if He’s not paying attention. We wait for what seems an inordinant amount of time for a situation to resolve and nothing happens. We ask for something we believe we need but is never realized. My faith understands in these moments of quietness God is not uncaring or inattentive to my voice. Only my impatient or faulty understanding of God’s ways messes with my head.
The Bible assures us when we pray, God is listening…and responding:
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15).
When we don’t know what to say, God steps in for us:
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26)
If the answer isn’t forthcoming there could be a reason:
"When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:3).
No matter the situatioon, we can rest assured. When we are praying our Lord is hearing our words, understands our motives, and is willing to act on our behalf. As His children we never have to worry that God is not paying attention.
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