The start of the school year reminds me that we live in the Age of Documentation. There are endless forms on every front. Regardless of profession, nearly everything we do has to be documented today. We document to mitigate liability, to plead our case with insurance companies, to defend our efforts on all fronts. Everything we do, it’s all there “in black and white.”
And, we live in an age of immediacy. We want things “now.” With advances in technology, we have grown accustomed to getting what we want quickly. So much can now be accomplished “with the touch of a button.”
It’s a complicated contradiction. Time consuming forms and endless documentation tugging against impatience and desire for immediacy. The result? An uneasy sense of unrest. An unsettled lack of satisfaction. A desire to seek ever more extreme thrills – none of which quench the appetite.
Last night, I looked at the piles of forms and piles of work on my desk. Then, I opened the Bible.
“Your father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt 6:9).
What immediacy! What intimacy!
No forms required. No complicated documentation.
I continued reading.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him” (Matt 7:7-8).
So simple. So guaranteed.
How comforting is this? We should have no qualms about asking God for what we need. We don’t need to plead our case. We just need to ask. We don’t need to “put on airs” as we talk with Him, we just need to be honest. He already knows what we need before we even ask Him.
There is no better or simpler offer for immediate and deep peace and satisfaction, no better way to reconcile the contradictions of our times – than prayer.
Rebecca C. Ruiz 