Why God Might Be Wondering Why You Never Call…

Ever feel like prayer is this super serious, complicated thing where you have to say all the right words? Nope! Prayer is basically chatting with your BFF — except your BFF is God, and He already knows your life story (awkward texts and all). Think of it like keeping the ultimate group chat alive: say thanks, ask for help, admit when you messed up, or just tell Him about your day. No fancy apps, no bad Wi-Fi, and you never get left on read. A funny but honest look at talking to God in a noisy world.

Transcript

Don't you hate it when you don't get any emails or texts or phone calls from people and you just wonder where people are? Well, how come how come no one's talking to you? I have to wonder if God doesn't feel the same way. And again, God being God, I'm sure it's not a same kind of feeling we would have, right? But that day after day that the the people, the human beings, the souls that you created out of all eternity and you put them here in time and you did it out of love and you gave that soul everything it could possibly ever want and then (00:36) just not hear from that person, that soul at all. St. Terresa of a Villa said, "Prayer is nothing else than a close sharing between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. And this is not for a guilt trip of any kind or or maybe it is a little bit, but when was the last time you talked to God? When was the last time you got on your knees in the morning and in the evening or sometime during the day and just just talked to God and asked him for what you needed for bringing your (01:13) frustrations, your fears, your worries, your concerns to him? When was the last time you prayed to God and said, "Thank you for all of my blessings. Thank you for all the graces. Thank you for all the wonderful things you've done in my life." And I think sometimes we expect way too much from God and give very little in return. (01:35) Like it's it's not it doesn't seem to be a two-way street. I mean, if you look outside in any given day, you see, you know, the sky, the clouds, the sun, you hear birds, you see trees, you see all these amazing things that God does for us and gives us all the time. You know, no, no, no matter how crappy this world gets, he he does this every single day. (01:56) He let he makes the sun rise. He, you know, it sets at night. He does all these wonderful things for us. And what is what is our response? So maybe it's again a partial guilt trip. It's not my intention, but again, ask yourself a question. When was the last time I I I prayed and I just and I talked to to God? I think a lot of it is that it's it's hard to pray. (02:23) It's hard to pray because we're we're surrounded by just noise. No noise everywhere. You've got your phone going off. You've got your, you know, TVs on constantly with their 3,000 different channels. There's just there there's so much stuff in the news and the blah blah blah and the my favorite word cacophony of of noise out in in the world that we're so distracted. (02:45) We don't take time to sit in silence, sit in quiet. I think that scares a lot of us. I think it's scary to be, you know, quiet and hear your own thoughts. Isn't that scary? I think a lot of people don't want to hear their own thoughts. They don't want to hear what's in the quiet. But I digress. In the quiet though, when you maybe turn off your phone, when you turn off the TV, when you get off the internet and just sit there in silence and thank God, think about God. (03:17) Read read your Bible. Read a chapter of the Bible and just think about God and think about Jesus and what he what he did for us. Think about how he treated other people. Read something from the saints and meditate on it and pray about it. I think if you I think you'll find that if you get in the regular routine of prayer and again at the at the most basic when you first get up in the morning, get on your knees and say, "Thank you, Lord, for a new day. (03:41) " You know, there are so many different ways to uh to pray in a Catholic sense, and I'm working on a document to put some of, you know, some prayers together that'll help you out. But just start in the morning by saying, "Thank you, God, for a new day." No matter how crummy you feel, I I'm one of those people. (03:57) I don't I don't know who who you are if you're out there, but you may be the person who jumps out of bed and you're like, "It's a new day and I'm so excited." I know a lot of us are kind of dragging ourselves out. You know, there's a difference between, "Oh, yay, another day." And oh, yay, another day, right? But when you get out of bed, first thing is just get on get on your knees. (04:16) Whether it's, you know, maybe you have a kneeler or a pillow or just the floor and just start out with an Our Father and Hail Mary in the creed and at that point just say, you know, again, thank you, God. I don't know what's coming today. I need your help. I can't do it. I've prayed that prayer so many times. I don't know if you have. (04:37) It's like, Lord, I I can't do this. I need your help. And that's just the the greatest prayer is just to admit that you need help. I can't tell you the power I found when I just said it's almost like in a sense of saying like, you know, I I give up. I give up. I can't do this. I need your help. And maybe for a lot of you, that's what God is waiting for. (05:05) For you to just stop and say, I I can't do this. I need your help. You know, God is like a loving father in the sense that when you go to him and say, "Daddy, I can't do this. I need your help." He doesn't ignore you, right? He He helps you. He'll He'll He'll find a way. You have a guardian angel, an angel who an angel who is with you all the time. (05:28) Reach out and ask your angel. Say, "Please be with me today." Whisper consolation in my ear. Whisper motivation. Right? The best motivational speaker might be your guardian angel. Forget all the books. I encourage you then to to start a conversation with God. As St. Teresa says, it's, you know, it's a friendship. (05:52) And think about when you have a friendship, how horrible it is when it's one way. When you do all the talking, you do all the work, you do all the nice gestures, and the other person is just kind of like meh. And and how many times are we like that with God where we just we just expect God to do everything. (06:10) He's got to do all the work and he's got to make things work the way I want them to and things got to turn out the way I want them to. Right? I I I I I. And maybe it's time to start treating God like a friend. And with a friend, you talk and communicate with a friend. Okay? And that's and that's what prayer is is talking and communicating with God. (06:32) Tell them about your day as you go out throughout the day. Lord, I was um you know, I was driving in my car and I started cussing at the driver next to me. I didn't want to do that. I I was really trying hard not to do that, but I did. And I and I'm so sorry I did that. And it might be strange. You know, we always laugh at at people when they tell us they have, you know, imaginary friends and what have you. (06:58) And we laugh because we can't see an imaginary friend. We can't see their imaginary friend, right? God is a friend that you can't see with your eyes, but you know he's always there. God is the best imaginary friend who's not imaginary. He's always he's always there. So, it's not a it's not an issue if you start if you start talking to him. (07:21) Start talking to him in your head. Start talking to him out loud. I can't believe I fell again, Lord. I just I got up this morning and I said I wouldn't kick the dog and I just kicked the dog. I I I can't believe I did that. I feel horrible. I I'm sorry I did that. What a great conversation to have with with the God who loves you and comes down and wraps his arms around you. (07:43) I said and says, "I know you're trying. I see you're trying." It goes back to what I said in an early episode about goodwill that you're trying. Think about the people who never talk to God at all and just do whatever they want. Ah, I just cursed at that guy in the other lane. Serves him right for, you know, driving too slow, too fast, too close to me, too far from me. (08:04) You know, all those all those things when we get upset with other people with no intention of changing or becoming a better person. So that's why I think it's so important that you make make the time, make the effort to make God an integral part of of every single day. You know, we can talk about, you know, the beauty of Catholicism and prayer and all that stuff, but none of that really matters if you don't start with that very basic conversation, friendship, relationship with God, who is love. St. (08:38) John says that in the Gospel of of of John. John God is love. God is charity. Same thing. And I think that's sometimes hard for us to to bend our minds around because we live in a world that's filled with just hate. People hate each other. They're killing each other. They're yelling at each other. (08:56) They're doing the most bizarre and and quite honestly sick things. And so we we look around like, well, where where is love? Where where is this love? You know, it's interesting that I I think it's in the scriptures that in the the very beginning of of Christianity. Christians were known by their love. And the comment would be made, it's like, look at how those Christians love one another. (09:23) But that love starts with God. God is first. That that love is in our hearts. So take time in prayer to express that love to God as you know amp it up from being a friend to being a lover right how how would you talk to and what kind of relationship would would you have with somebody you're in love with like a romantic love would you not talk to that person would you not share your your thoughts and your feelings your hurts your triumphs with that person of course you would because you're in love with that person (09:57) you want to do whatever ever you can to be closer to that person, to fall in love with that person, to share everything with that person. That's the kind of relationship God has with us. And that's what took it took me forever. And again, I'm still I I still struggle with that. That God is so in love with you. (10:14) And he wants he wants to hear from you. He wants that he wants so badly that love return. You know, when Jesus says, "I thirst," as I understand it, it's not so much for the physical sensation of thirst and water as he thirsts for for souls. He thirsts for love. He thirsts for love from the people that he gave love to, that he gives love to. (10:37) I mean, think about that. I'm I am Jesus. I am going on this horrible road of suffering to the cross to die for you, specifically for you. And what is our response to that? We don't pray to him. We don't talk to him. We don't ask for his help. We don't bring him our heart. We don't bring him our sorrows. (10:58) We don't bring him our joys. Nothing. Just silence. How frustrating is that? Think about the people in your life that have kind of frozen you out with without talking to you or having conversation with you or, you know, and just naturally in time. Some people just aren't in your life anymore. But think about the people that you want so badly to have relationship with who won't even seem to give you the time of day or have any conversation with you at all. (11:25) So think about that with God. And it's time to take the focus off ourselves like, well, what has God done for me? What has God done for me lately? What has God done for me? How come God doesn't give me what I want? It's like make it a two-sided relationship. have that love for God and show him that love. (11:50) And it also weird when you think about it is it when you think about prayer, it's where you have direct communication to the God of the universe. You don't even have direct communication probably with your boss's boss at work, with people that you know. It's like, well, how do I get a hold of that person? You know, think of movie stars. (12:07) Think about celebrities. You think you just pick up a phone and call up your favorite, you know, music star, your favorite Hollywood actor, actress, and yet here's God created the universe, created you, created everything in this world, and all you have to say is, "Hey Lord, it's me. (12:29) How are you? Let me share something with you. Let me talk to you." How how amazing is that that you can have that conversation with with the God of the universe, the God who just again who loves you so much and created so much for you. You have direct access. Just say, "Hey, you know, you don't have to pick up a phone. (12:48) You don't have to text. You don't have you don't need any technology. You don't have to be anywhere special. You don't have to be anybody, you know, important or a big deal. Can you can you imagine God's secretary? Uh Lord, we have uh we have Mark on the line. Uh would you like to take his call? And you see God just kind of like, you know, doing the sniff. (13:12) It's like, I'm I'm busy. No. Uh hey Lord, it's the um it's the president of the United States and uh he he wants to have a word with you. And what does God say? He says yes. What does God say when Mark calls? Yes. What does God say when you call? Yes, I'll take the call. Isn't that amazing? It's you you don't get that wi with other people in this world. (13:39) Many times you won't get that. And here it is. Our God, our incredible God will do that. And that's what prayer is, is that communication. And he's available 24/7, 365 days a year. I think it's alo kind of weird it, you know, not only will he take your call, you'll never get a busy signal. And I know as we, you know, when I grew up, you had a busy signal. (14:05) If you called someone and and they were on the phone, you' get a busy signal kind of thing. You'd have to call back later. I don't think we even get that so much with with our phones today. You'll get a message or something, but you'll never get a busy signal because God is he's his phone line is always open to you. (14:25) He has about I think eight billion phone lines, right? And and you'll never get a busy signal. I tell you what what is hard about prayer is that you don't you don't get that voice back right away. You know what I'm saying? So if you're talking to God and say, "Lord, I'm having a really hard time with with so and so. (14:48) What what should I do?" Well, Mark, I think first of all, you should go apologize. I think you should talk to this person, blah blah blah. You're not going to hear that, chances are. And if you do, maybe you're a mystic or something. I mean, that's that's fantastic. But when I talk to God, I usually don't hear from him. I don't hear his voice. (15:05) I don't get an email as many times as I want one. I don't get a letter in the mail. So, the hard part, I think, is is not hearing like we as humans want to hear. We want that immediate feedback and what have you. But that's also the beauty of our Lord who just says, "I I hear you." And in good time, you'll get an answer. (15:26) It may be immediate. It may be next week. It may be years. And that's where our trust comes in. Our confidence in God. Just say, "Okay, I've brought my my prayers and my petitions to God. I just believe and I just trust that he's going to take care of it." It it's so cool to have that confidence that you can you can just let go and just say, you know, like a good father, he's going to take care of it. (15:52) In fact, it's a load off your shoulders. Just say, "Okay, I brought it to God. I gave it to him. He knows about it. Of course, he knew about it beforehand, but he knows about it, and I can just go on now because it's it's in his hands." There's this beautiful novena I I found. I think there's a booklet on Amazon, but I also I found it online. (16:11) It's a surrender novena. And after each, you know, after each day, there's a short little like a, you know, meditation or something you can read. And at the at the end of each one, you say 10 times, "Oh Jesus, I, oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything." That idea of letting go, of giving everything to God, giving everything to Jesus because he says, "Give it to me. (16:35) " He says, "Without me, you can do nothing. So if I can't do anything with him, then I might as well give him everything. And you do that in prayer. Think how powerful that is. Instead of saying, I want this, I want that, I want this to work out this way, and I want to have these kind of things. (16:52) Just say, I I surrender. What what you know, whatever you want, I I can't do it. You do it. You take care of it. And I'm back to that's such a load off off our shoulders. Instead of saying we have to do everything, I've got to do all this stuff. I've got to move this mountain. I've got to, you know, drain the sea. It's like, no, give it to God. (17:12) And and and you'll feel the weight go off your shoulders. I guarantee it. I think it's weird that a lot of people when they do pray, they end up looking at God and they're kind of like a spoiled child. You better give me what I want and you better do what I tell you to do and I better have this by next week or I'm not even going to talk to you. Hm. (17:35) Like, can you imagine God who created you that you you turn around and you look at him, you tell him what you want, when you want it, and how you want it. I know it's frustrating. There's a lot of times where people just say, you hear him get mad at God. Why does God allow this? Why does God allow uh bad things to happen to good people? I think the better question is why? Why? Why not? God knows everything. (18:01) He knows he lives in the eternal present. So the past, present, and future all the same to God. He already sees what's coming down the pike. And he's given you the best of what you need at that moment in time. Think how many times you've asked God for something, you didn't get it, you were mad at him, only to find out years later that if you had gotten what you wanted, oh my gosh, it would have just like messed up your life big time. Big time. (18:28) Think about all the decisions. Think about things that you've done, decisions you made or haven't made, or things you've done or haven't done, or things that have happened to you that now you look in the past, and you say, "Thank God I didn't get what I wanted. Thank God things didn't go this way, and they went this way instead. (18:45) Right now, you're in tears. Right now, you're angry. Right now, you're sad. Right now, you don't understand." And you take it to God in prayer and say, "Lord, I don't understand. This hurts. I don't get it. I'm angry. I'm whatever. I don't understand. But I'm giving it to you. Take care of it. I just I find it so odd when people are just yelling at God. (19:10) And and when you think about it, think about if you're a person who has children or if you've seen little children. What is it like when you see a 2-year-old yelling at its parent or yelling at somebody else? Give me what I want. Give me, give me, give me. Do this. Better not. Why is Jimmy in the corner crying? Well, he didn't get his way. (19:30) Isn't that what we we come across as screaming babies? We're not childlike. We're childish. And I know I'm not saying that there's things that aren't hard. There's a death of a loved one or u you know, some catastrophe somewhere. And the first thing, you know, again, I hear in the news, I see it all over and you probably have too. (19:48) People are the first thing is like, why did God let this happen? Good question. But he's God. And he let it happen. He allowed it to happen. So many times I hear people say, "Oh, so and so they died. They were too young." Really? What's too young? What's too old? And I'm not I'm not I got to be careful. I'm not criticizing. (20:12) I'm not looking down my nose. I've struggled with the same thing. But I've come to the piece that says just let God handle it. Just let God be God. God lets you be you. When you think about it, right? He's not he's not changing you. He gave you free will. He's not coming down and say, "Well, you're going to do things this way and boom, I'm going to change you and you're going to be a robot and you're going to love me and do exactly what I say." He doesn't do that. (20:39) So, so turn the tables and just say, "Let let God be God. Let God do his thing." And you'll be amazed at what happens. You'll be amazed at the freedom you get when you let go. And in prayer, you just say, "Thank you. I don't understand this. Something terrible happened today. I've lost jobs before or I've been said, "Hey, thanks, but no thanks. (21:02) " Did I want that to happen? No. Did all of a sudden that the income coming in and you're just like I'd be a liar if I said, "Hey, I didn't, you know, this wasn't upsetting. This wasn't tough." But over time, I learned to just say, "Okay, well, that's God's plan." And my wife has been a huge help. just, you know, God will figure it out. (21:24) God will take care of it. Let God do his thing. So, above all, prayer is the first thing that as soon as you feel yourself getting angry, upset with God, just get on your knees and just say, "God, I'm angry at you. I I am angry at you. I don't understand this. This hurts. It's painful." Tell it to him. (21:45) If God is really your friend, I love all these people. It's like, well, Jesus is your friend. He's your buddy and everything. Really? He's also God. And as your friend, run to him. Tell him when you're mad. Tell him when you're upset. Tell him when you're happy. Tell Tell him all these things. I I think we we just I don't know. (22:08) I I I don't think we have a right picture of God sometimes. Just let go. He's God. He's our father. He knows the deal. He knows what's going on. and he knows how this story ends and so do we. We know God wins in the end. God's winning right now whether you think he is or not. Anyway, I'll get off that soap box soap box, right? Um, like I said, I I think what's really stupid about prayer or talking to God is when you just you want God to give you what you want. (22:45) So, try to get out of the habit if you do that of quit telling God what to do. You would hate if a 5-year-old walked up to you and told you what to do. And I'll bet in our I'll bet there's times when there's just people in your life who tell you what to do and just like, "Don't tell me what to do." Right? You don't you don't want that. (23:01) So, try to get in the habit of not telling God what to do. Not having expectations, but just really letting go and saying something like, you know, Lord, as long as I'm with you, I don't care what happens. Just as long as I get to be with you. And you can do that with prayer no matter where you are. Even when when you're out in public, you know, for us Catholics, a good sign of the cross out in public, hey Lord, I'm thinking about you. (23:25) I just want to say thank you. You know, pray a Hail Mary. Say it out loud. In this day and age, there's so many people talking to themselves out in public. It it's it's not going to be weird if they if someone hears you saying a prayer audibly in public. I it just it's we live in a very strange time where when I was growing up if someone was talking to themselves they were probably crazy and they probably belong in some certain kind of home. (23:50) Nowadays, you know, we assume you're talking on your your headphones or something like that. So go ahead just, you know, wherever you are, let let it loose. And you're also when you do that, you know, when you say prayers as a Catholic, when you say prayers out loud in public or you make the sign of the cross, there may very well be people looking at you. (24:12) And a lot of times, I remember for for a long time, I was just like, "Oh, what if someone sees me? What if they do see you? What if they say you see you making the sign of the cross in public in a prayer and they're like, "Wow, that that person's what are they doing?" Or, "I'm I'm a Catholic. I feel kind of ashamed that I haven't done that in public for so long. (24:32) You have no idea how you're affecting other people. So, pray at home, pray in public, pray at work. If you're in the cafeteria or something at work, make the sign of the cross. Say a prayer. Have a moment of silence. And yeah, people may wonder what you're doing, but that's a good thing. Be be ready to explain it and talk about it. Your excitement that you get to talk to God and say, "Thank you for my food. (24:55) Thank you for the opportunity to work here. Thank you for the opportunity to be here that I can get a a paycheck and take care of my needs, take care of my family. Everything can be a prayer. Everything, you know, I think again in our human nature, it's it's it seems kind of stupid when you pray that you don't get what you want. (25:17) You know, well, I asked for this. I I asked I asked for this big old house and everything and I didn't get it. And the great part of that though is that you always get what you need. God gives you exactly what you need. As I said earlier, think of all the times you didn't get what you wanted, but in hindsight, you're like, "Thank you, God. Thank you, I didn't get that. (25:36) Thank you I didn't marry that person. Thank you I didn't go to that school for this degree and, you know, get a degree in turf management. Thank you. Thank you for all that. And you know, if you can stop looking in the past with your regrets and things that didn't happen and you know how you may still be upset with God about this didn't happen, that didn't happen. (25:56) I get it. But think about God in in a loving relationship. And if you're mad at him, it it's time to let that go. It's time to quit being angry with God. It's time to just say, "Lord, I love you." And it's the biggest thing. I don't understand it. How do you understand the mind of the Lord of the universe who created everything who has exist who's existed from all eternity? And our little human pea brains were like, "God just doesn't understand what what I need. (26:28) He just doesn't understand what I want. He just doesn't understand me. So, I'm going to be mad at him." It just it it it comes off as silly. It really does. So, if you're not in the habit of prayer, it's step one in your journey. It's step one of just having that relationship with God and get in the habit of praying. Start in the start with when you get up, make sure you pray to God at the end of the day and thank him for everything. (26:55) And throughout the day, just make, you know, little ejaculatory prayers it's called. You say, "Thank you, Jesus. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, thank you for your mercy." And and I I guarantee you, your life is going to change. You're going to be amazed at the change when you it'll it'll it'll take away so much of the the the the stress and the anxiety and maybe even the anger and and discouragement and all those negative emotions that you may have because it gives everything to God. It hands it to him. (27:24) It takes the pressure off. You weren't designed to to rule the world, right? You you were designed to love God and to serve him and to do what he is asking you to do and trusting that what he has for you is so much better than what you could ever think about or conceive in your mind. It's been repeated in history over and over and over again. (27:47) It's almost it's almost nauseating. People who thought they could, you know, all of a sudden take over and take over a country, take over the world and all those, you know, those horrible uh fiction movies, right? the the evil guy who's going to take over the world. You're not going to take over the world, okay? Your your job is to conquer God's heart with your love to just love him so much and he just looks you looks at you and says, "How can I say no? How can I say no to someone who loves me so much?" So, step one, start praying if you're (28:24) not praying already. And if you already are pray praying, see if you can amp it up. See if you can, you know, do other things. Try different novena prayers. Try different other types of prayer. And hopefully you have a spiritual uh director or a wise friend or someone you can say, "Hey, I you know, do you have any suggestions?" Or maybe you're in a really good place where you just have a really good prayer life and God is your best friend, Jesus is your best friend, Mary is your best friend, and you talk to them and you (28:55) talk to the saints and you're having conversations all throughout the day and you're talking to your guardian angel. You're just that much closer to heaven. You're just a step away. So, keep doing that. I encourage you as we continue on this journey together. You know what? What is it? Wake up, pray up or something like that. (29:14) Just Don't stop praying. All right. God bless you. We'll see you next time."