Excuse me. Do you have a minute?

Do you have intimidating people in your life who make you feel a little “less than” when you need a few minutes of their time? After all, they’re busy people and you don’t want to distract them from their project at hand.

I have several people like that in my life and to protect the innocent, I’ll refrain from naming them, but how awesome it is to have close friends and family members who we know at any given time – no matter what they’re doing, we can interrupt them. They welcome our presence as much as we welcome theirs. Those are the “relationship” people in our lives.

I came across this scripture about THE ONE Who has billions of kids wanting His attention. With King David, we can say: “I love the LORD because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” (Psalm 116:1-2)

My sweet husband and I figured out that marriage was about communication. We discovered that on the days when we stopped the hustle and bustle of our days and had heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul conversations. Not just a “Hi. How are you? I love you. See you later” kind of communication but intentional times of relationship. And, that’s when our relationship grew. On the days that there was little or no communication, our relationship simply waned.

The same is true with God. On the days when we have deep, enriching talks with God, our relationship with Him grows. When we really love somebody, we want to talk with that person. I remember when two youngsters (me and my future husband) first fell in love as teenagers. My mom would say “How can you talk so long on the phone??” We talked and talked because we were getting to know each other.

Then there’s our little talks with God. Anything that we’d talk to our closest friend about – we can talk to God about: our hopes, our fears, our dreams, our anxieties, the things we’re embarrassed about, the things we’re proud of, the things we’re ashamed of, our goals, our ambitions, our hurts, our cares—every part of our lives.

Let’s repeat that scripture that I started with: “I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” (Psalm 116:1-2)

I spoke about those intimidating folks who we cower to if we want their attention. I loved the “open door” policy that my boss had at the University of Manitoba. All I had to do was peek my head around the corner and he’d always wave his hand for me to come on in. We had a great relationship.

Even more of an “open door” policy is with our Father God. He is the Author of relationship. Remember how He talked with Adam and Eve in the garden? That is Who we can fellowship with daily. Maybe you’re not feeling so close to God because your relationship with Him has become mundane and routine. There’s a simple remedy: Start talking to God again.

Prayer is not some duty that we have to do. It’s a privilege that we get to do. We get to walk right into His presence. No holds barred! He’s waiting on a conversation with us! Why don’t we go ahead and sit a spell with our Creator? He’s waving us right in, right now!