Always Listening

In our home we need to be careful what we say.  Key words like “walk” and “toast” get the dog bouncing off the walls.  (Yes, our dog loves toast.  When the toaster pops, he appears in the kitchen in seconds, even if formerly in a deep, sound sleep in the furthest reaches of the house.)  In addition to that, there is the whole technology thing.  To not wake Alexa, we refer to her Voldemort style by calling her “the one whose name we do not speak.”  You may have seen the meme that says “My wife asked me why I was speaking so softly at home.  I told her I was afraid Mark Zuckerberg was listening! She laughed. I laughed.  Alexa laughed. Siri laughed.”

We live in a time when we know that our every move is being listened to, maybe watched and possibly recorded.  Sure, sometimes we slip, like the “toilet flush heard around the world.”[1]  But in general this “big brother” culture is engrained in us, and we live with it and adapt.

So why then do we have trouble thinking that God is always aware of our circumstances?  Maybe it is because we are instructed to pray, so we erroneously translate that to mean that we need to fill God in on the day’s happenings.  Rather than that, if we engrained that God is always with us and aware of our joys and needs to the same extent that we treat technology being ever-present, we might pray a little differently, and live a little differently. Try it!

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[1] On May 6, 2020, the United States Supreme Court was holding arguments by telephone, and the distinct sound of a toilet flushing was heard.