Isn�t it hard to talk to God?
Often times, when friends advise us to talk to God, it might come to us that we don�t even have the slightest idea as to where to begin. It might seem impossible to talk to someone who is so distant, someone who we couldn�t even see with our eyes. How can I talk to and trust someone whom I can�t see? How can I talk with someone so far away? How can I know if God is talking to me? It seems like when I speak to God, I�m talking to myself. I don�t notice anything special that makes me know whether it is God who tells me this or not.
In short, there are difficulties that are found when talking to God :- He�s too far away.
- He�s invisible.
- I don�t know how he talks to me
How does God talk?
(Story rephrased by the editor)
Here�s a story: A man lived alone in his house. He was proud of his faith in God and believed firmly in His Providence. Hard times came and torrential rains brought a great flood. Neighbors rushed out to evacuate their homes and buildings, but the man simply climbed to the roof of his house and watched the people rush under the rain as the waters rose higher. A rescue team came and, spotting the man, rushed to his aid.
�Come with us! You must hurry!�
The man simply stood there and exclaimed: �No, go help the others: God will save me.�
He turned them down until the team had to leave to assist other people in need. Hours passed, the water rushed in through his house and rose nearly to the roof, covering other houses nearby. A rescue boat came by to help him, believing the man to be stranded.
�Please come! There isn�t much time!�
Again, the man refused to accept the help: �God will save me. Help the others.�
The men on the boat insisted and urged, but the man turned them down until they had no option but to leave and return to safe lands. Night fell and the rains didn�t cease. The house was submerged under the raging flood. A helicopter flew by and barely saw the man wading in the waters over what was his house. They flew overhead and let down a ladder. One of the men climbed down to help him up, exclaiming:
�We�re here! Climb aboard!�
Through the rain, the man shouted: �No! God will save me!�
Though they also insisted, the rains didn�t cease and the helicopter had to leave shortly afterwards without the man. In time, the water covered him until he could no more and the man drowned in the storm.
The man entered then heaven, protesting and shouting. St. Peter was at the gates and the man explained to him:
�Did you see that? I was trusting in God and His Providence and He let me down!�
The reply was immediate:
�What are you talking about!? He sent you a rescue team, a boat, a helicopter��
The story may be comical or not, but it does have a pretty real message. Divine Providence doesn�t consist of anything strange or extraordinary, as the man in the story might have believed. All the people that came by to offer help were part of the Providence.
The man would be wrong to think that all those chances were exclusively initiative of men. It�s true that the Red Cross or Rescue Agencies send the help, but God employs all the circumstances and the free human acts to the service of his plans, in which we always play a part. God speaks with acts. God speaks with circumstances. God speaks with the things that we think of and that come to mind. God says something with each and every person that he places at our side.
There is a parable in which Jesus clearly explains this fact. When he was saying that we must love our neighbor, one who listened (wishing to excuse himself) asks: �And who is my neighbor?� (neighbor meaning �one next to us� in the language). Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. A poor man, robbed and beaten by thieves, was laying half-dead in the side of the road. Two other Jewish men: a priest and a scribe, who should feel implied to help, pass by but paid him no heed. Finally, a man from Samaria, people at odds with the Jews, picks the man up and takes him to an inn, where he asks for him to be tended to and cared for. Jesus concludes: �Do the same�. He tells us: Who is my neighbor? The one that God places before you to help. (Lucas 10, 25-37)
God asks all men to love. But he speaks to me by placing in front of me someone, a real person, that maybe I find by pure causality; maybe it is a relative or a co-worker, or my upstairs neighbor. God speaks to me with this person that he places next to me. God asks me to act by putting this person in certain circumstances. God speaks to me with everything that happens.
How much and when does God talk?
Someone who superficially judges what was just said might think that this is some sort of fundamentalist, irrational lecture. And we say that it would be superficial because the fact that God speaks in his Providence, in the ordinary, is not something irrational but over-rational, that is, it is rational and logical, but it is beyond us.
If God is the creator� if the creation is not to construct but to love� if we exist in the thoughts and the love of God� if God is continually creating� it is logical to conclude that God is present in every instance, in every second of history. And he is present and intervening and he speaks in every intervention.
How does God talk? God speaks with everything: things that happen, natural laws, circumstances, �casualties�, with my personal limitations, with the intelligence he has given me, my personal conscience� Everything.
How can he talk if he�s invisible? He is invisible, but he speaks through that which is visible; for which we could actually say that the world is the mouth of God: He speaks to me in all that happens.
How can he speak to us if he�s so far away? God is more intimate of each one of us than we are in ourselves. But there lies the key: it is in this intimacy where he speaks. However, I can open this intimacy and find myself with it, or I can choose to have it closed. If I have this intimacy closed, then it�s true that God will be too far away to talk to me. That is why, when someone fears that God may ask something of him that goes against his will, the natural, more efficient reaction is not to think, not consider the intimacy of the facts, to not pray� that way we put a great and huge distance between Him and I.
