We need to talk

We need to talk.

-God



This was an ad I saw on a billboard on our way to Baguio last semester break. The tarpaulin is really simple. The text is printed white on a plain black background.

The tarpaulin is poorly hanged covering only less than half of the total space for the ad. It seemed to be hanged for the sole purpose of using the billboard while the ad which is supposed to be there isn't finished yet, just so that the money spent paying the rent for the ad space isn't wasted by not using it.

Considering its sheer simplicity, it still struck me, and I don't know why. Maybe it is because of the simplicity itself that the message sunk into me. This may also be the reason why my attention is focused only on what it is saying. There are no fancy colors to look at, no pictures to criticize, no designs to admire.

That message made me reflect on the value of prayer in our lives. Other people think of God only as a last resort to their problems. They think that prayer is the solution to a flat tire. They're wrong. Prayer must be the steering wheel which guides the car into the right path so that it doesn't get its tires flat.

Our life should be devoted to prayer. We should not only pray twice a day - in the morning after we wake up and in the evening before we sleep. We should not only pray when we are asking something from Him. Why? God doesn't abandon us for He is with us always. He is not with us only in the morning and in the evening, so why should we abandon Him?

God doesn't ask of us much, He just wants us to put Him first in everything we do and so we must. By doing this, we put our work into order. With His guidance, we can achieve perfection in what we do.

Most people say they don't have time for prayer, but they do have time. I think the real reason is they don't want to pray. Thinking that the 24 hours a day given to us by God is more than enough to do all the things we need, why don't we have time to thank Him for this? Considering that 10 hours will be allotted for sleeping, and another 10 hours for preparing and going to work or school, we still have 4 hours of free time. If you spend two hours for recreation (two hours is more than enough to watch a full-length movie), there will still be two hours left. What do you do in those two hours?

We can also pray throughout the day by offering everything we do to God. As St. Josemaria Escriva says, one hour of work is one hour of prayer if you offer it up to God. How will we do that? Before anything you do, think of the presence of God, and say to Him, "I offer this up to You Lord." Always do everything for the glory of God, and He will surely help you.