Speed Racer

I went to see Speed Racer last Friday with my son and some of his friends. While I wasn't crazy about the movie overall, there was a scene that got me thinking about something else I have been thinking about which made me think that much more about it. Confusing?

Speed is a little boy and Rex, his brother, is letting Speed sit in his lap driving Rex's race car. He tells Speed something along the lines of "just listen to her (the race car) and she will tell you what to do." The idea was that instead of Speed having to make it all happen, if he would listen to what the car was telling him, he would know how to drive better. In a way, it comes down to the relationship between the driver and the car.

I'm going to be talking to our youth class in a few weeks about prayer and my lesson is going to be centered on our relationship with God and the idea that the better our relationship is, the better our prayer life will be. Just think about someone you don't know very well and having to start a conversation with them. It's not always easy and sometimes there is little said. Other times, as you converse, you find commonality and build bonds and the conversation is easier and future conversations are something you look forward to. One of the keys to building that relationship is to not be the one doing all the talking but to take time and listen, hear what the other person is telling you. That's a failure often in my relationship with God. I pray telling him what I need, what I want, what I hope will happen and then I'm done and gone. There is no listening on my part and only 1/2 of the relationship is being fulfilled.

My prayer life has to be built on a relationship. I need to know God well enough that I can have a conversation with Him and that prayer time is something I look forward to over and over. To build that relationship, I also need to listen, to hear what He is telling me. If it do it, I will certainly go further, faster than any race car could ever take me.