First published in Sight Magazine under ‘This Life’ column, 3 December 2025
ARE WE LEAVING VOICEMAILS TO GOD?
“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 29:12-14
I recently contacted a relative to pay condolences. We had not spoken for a while, so it felt awkward to phone out of the blue.
In my Lebanese culture, I was haunted by the Arabic adage Ain al mahzoun dai’a. It literally translates as “the eye of the bereaved is narrow”. In practice, this means that the mourner’s eyes are sharp and harsh. They notice everything, including who was absent.
Sending a ‘message’ could be (perceived as) disrespectful, so I hit the ‘call’ button. When it rang out and reached voicemail, I must confess my relief.
Then my conscience was pricked by pangs of guilt: do I sometimes treat my daily prayers like ritual voicemails?
Before I sleep, I kneel by my bedside and face the Divine Mercy image of Jesus. I follow a threefold prayer routine that I taught my children: thanks…sorry… please…
But at the end of the prayer, there is no pause or listening. With the sign of the cross, I virtually hang up…on God!
This does not feel like a two-way conversation with “Our Father who art in Heaven”. It feels more like a routine payment of a regular contribution to my spiritual superannuation, hoping for a return on that investment when darkness envelopes me or at the hour of our death.
If my prayer transaction can be reduced to a voicemail machine, how would it feel if God treated me with automated busy-ness?
“Hey Siri/Alexa/Google, call God.” After the ringtone, it offers all languages.
“Thank you for calling heaven’s hotline. Please select one of the following four options: Press 1 for a miracle. Press 2 for appointments. Press 3 for forgiveness. Press 4 for gratitude. Press 5 to leave a voicemail. To hear these options again…We are busy taking other calls…Your call is important to us…Your expected wait time is…To use our virtual assistant…”
Some angelic choir fills the void while I am on hold, fuming.
“I don’t want to leave a voice message! I need to talk to a real person! Not to some artificial…”
Sounds familiar?
But it is the antithesis of our faith and Scriptures that our loving Father could ever treat us with such disdain.
In my advocacy work, I have sought private audiences with CEOs, politicians, celebrities and bishops. I wait in queue, “put it in writing”, endure screening, then am allocated a time-limited appointment at a predestined location, which could be cancelled at short notice.
But God has no appointment secretary. His door and heart are always open as He will “neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). He even “knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8).
He imposes no time limit on my appointment, has reception from any location, does not charge for global roaming, and keeps our conversations private.
He never narrows His eyes when I call him out of the blue.
Perhaps this is a wake-up call worth sharing. Perhaps we all reduce prayer to a routine or ritual rather than the more important r-word: Relationship.
I have learnt to pause, be still, and know that God answers my prayers in his own way, in his own time. But as the Prophet Elijah found, God’s voice may not be dramatic and instant: “After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper…Then a voice said to him…” (I Kings 19:11-13).
That’s the best bit: pausing to listen to that whispering voice.