A little 'more' conversation

The title of my blog thoughts for today comes from the title of an Elvis song recorded 1968 for the film 'Live a little, love a little'. A song that only reached number 69 in the hit parade of the day and was pretty much ignored by all but the most hardened Presley devotee. As a dedicated Elvis fan I am more than a little ashamed to say that this tune had passed me by until it's relaunch in 2002 for the Nike world cup advert campaign released under the title Elvis verses JXL.

The original and the remake are both very catchy tunes and are equally worthy of note, not least as the re-released version made it's way not to number 69 but a rather more impressive number one in over twenty countries.  A feat that I am sure the Elvis Presley foundation where a little surprised about and then very happy for as they reaped the royalty payments. The lyrics, for those of you not so familiar with this tune (shame on you) suggest that the time has come to stop talking and get on with it, to "close your mouth and open up your heart".

Following on from yesterday's thoughts on talking together I cannot resist the observation that in the same way that we fail to converse meaningfully with one another we also fail to really chat with God. In our church in Selston this week we are focusing on the topic of prayer and fasting (more about the latter another day) and thinking about how we should talk to God. And this is a subject that we so often complicate and miss the simple beauty of the opportunity to really talk.

Any conversation should be a two way street, an opportunity for both parties to share their feelings and their points of view. Our prayers to God should be the same, an opportunity to talk to God and an equal time to listen to his responses. Which will probably not come as a booming voice from the sky but may come from a quiet thought or a gentle whisper, a verse of encouragement, the advice of a friend or maybe even from the words of a song.

Maybe Elvis didn't get it completely right and rather than a little less I think we actually need a lot more conversation with each other and with our God who is ready to listen. But we should never forget that this prayer stuff is supposed to be a conversation not a shopping list. Today lets take the chance to share a time with God when we really do close our mouths, open up our hearts and ears to really listen to His music.

I pray that today God will be 'satisfactioning' every one of us.

Have a great day.

God bless.

Chris