[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=talking+child&iid=263944″ src=”0260/4c57b11d-4169-41a3-98e9-415af9f41a03.jpg?adImageId=12823163&imageId=263944″ width=”234″ height=”350″ /]”Don’t talk back” was a common refrain at my childhood home. My siblings and I were adept in the use of the English language and thus had to learn the discipline of when to “use our words” and when to keep the mouth shut. I must confess that while I did better than some, I was not as quick a student as I should have been.

The common use of the phrase “talking back” is nearly always negative because it is most often used to describe an inferior addressing a superior. What about when the situation is reversed? Is it ever the case the superior “talks back” to the inferior? The answer is “yes” and we would do well to know it.

Most Americans claim to pray on a regular basis. Survey after survey attests to the self-belief that we are a people of prayer. If my email inbox is any indication, we are culturally open to others beseeching the Divinity on our behalf. It is my experience, however, that most people pray like they play the lottery. Players and prayers spend a little to keep themselves “in the game” but hold little real hope of ever seeing their “ticket come home.” We toss up some words, sometimes even with desperate lilt, but in the end go about our business as usual.

I believe God talks back, but Americans are too dull to hear. I believe God responds to us on a regular basis, but we are too busy, too distracted, or too small in our faith to give ourselves an opportunity to listen to what God has to say.

If this is indeed the case, what can we do about it? How should we adjust our lives to exchange a few meaningless nouns and verbs for a vibrant conversation with the One who loves us so much that He invites us to be in constant communication with Himself?

Rejoice always; pray wthout ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18

My friends at Main Street will be considering the answer to this question over the next few weeks.