Just Ask

Luke 11:1-13

I can still remember my first few weeks in retail sales. I was transitioning from a dozen or so years in the food service industry and honestly had no idea what I was doing. So, imagine my surprise at the success which I was enjoying.

I was selling used cars (yes, I was a used car salesman) and sold 10 cars in my first month. I received accolades from my sales managers and fellow sales people. Apparently, selling 10 cars in a month is somewhat of a milestone in the automotive sales industry. What amazed them more was that I achieved this milestone without any kind of training, formal or informal. My training was literally a sentence by my sales manager that went something like, "Just help the customer find a car he's happy with and we'll do the rest."

Of course, one can't help but learn how things work so as I paid attention to the interaction between my sales manager and the customer I understood exactly how to "make a deal". Then, for the next 3 weeks, as I did and said all the things I needed to in order to make a deal, I sold absolutely no cars - none.

My manager called me in to his office one night and said that normally I would have been fired by now, but because I had such a good first month he was going to give me one more week to sell a car. If I didn't sell a car within the week he was going to let me go.

As I sat alone in the corner of the lot and contemplated if sales was what I should be doing, one of the other sales people came up to me and began a conversation. "How are you doing?" "Where are you from?" "Oh really, do you know so-and-so?" Are you married?"

After a good 15 minutes of him asking me somewhat personal questions he looked at me and asked, "Am I the kind of person you would want to buy a car from?"

In that question I understood exactly what he meant. For me, making the deal had become more important than knowing the customer. As I reflected on my first month I heard myself asking each person I met the same questions he just asked me. Reflecting on the conversations in the weeks that followed, the questions were more about finances and monthly payments.

Prayer, to me, is something like that. In order for it to be successful a relationship needs to be established between you and God. The better the relationship, the better the chances that you will find what you're looking for through your conversation with God.