Why Pray?

The question in the title of this post baffles me.  There are many that follow it: how long should I pray?  What should my attitude be in prayer?  If I am spending my time just praying, am I missing out on doing other things God would have me do?  Prayer is certainly fascinating.  It is interesting that every culture has seemed to develop a form of it.  It seems there is this innate desire to pray.  We possibly desire to pray just like we desire to eat and sleep.  We sense that a higher being is present, we simply have questions such as: in what form does it exist and how do we go about communicating with it?
I certainly believe that the answer to the first question is the God of the Bible--an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving God.  The answer to the second question is much more difficult for me.  When Jesus speaks of prayer during His sermon on the mount, He provides instruction to not offer up empty phrases and also do not pray to be seen.  Instead, He advises that we pray in a closed room and gives us the Lord's prayer as a model.  Jesus also demonstrated the importance of prayer in the amount of time He devoted to it.  He took great care to find quiet places and spend time with His Father.
As I seek to answer the question: "why pray?" I look first to my own experience.  Answers to this question are rich when I look to my own experience rather than seeking to empirically prove the value of prayer.  I cannot do a statistical analysis of my time spent praying in relation to the amount of times God has answered me, but I can speak about the transformation that happens in me--the prayer, when I pray.  First, I believe prayer can take many forms and is primarily about our intentions, but as I speak about prayer for the remainder of this post I will be talking about on my knees, in my room, eyes closed prayer.  I believe that these times can be incredibly rich, not just because God is hearing my praises and requests in these moments, but also because I am transformed every time I pray.  Every time I pray, I stand up and leave my room with a greater sense of God's perspective.  It takes me removing myself from the world and humbly coming before God before He truly gives me His eyes.  Of course He can meet me throughout the day, but there is something about these times.  Honestly, my danger has been spending too much time laying before God simply seeking His face.  But I feel these times are incredibly fruitful, it is in these times that I feel most alive, that I feel everything I do and am have significance.  What are my talents if they are not devoted to God?  Everything is meaningless unless I find the value it has in God.  All of this may sound like uber religious babble, but I know there are others that share my experience, and the fact that so many people at least believe in a form of prayer, makes me think that most people are seeking.  
As I close, I also want to make a case for devoting a concentrated amount of time to prayer.  There are two images I want to provide to make this case.  The first is a scuba diver.  When I pray I view myself as somewhat of a scuba diver.  I am taking time to dive beneath the surface, deep into the character of God.  What a beautiful journey it is.  The problem is, fruitful scuba diving does not take place in five hurried minutes.  I do not want to get a glimpse of the bottom and then have to resurface.  I want to reach the bottom and be able to look closely at the coral and admire the fish.  I want to spend enough time in the depths that I begin to think critically about it.  The scuba diver must spend significant amounts of time below the surface to really soak in the surroundings.
The second image is of a hot air balloon pilot.  In focused prayer, not only do we explore the depths of God's character,  we also get a bird's eye view of the world and our place in it.  Once again, a five minute trip in a hot air balloon will not give you much of a view of your surroundings.  Instead, you must reach the desired elevation and soak in the surroundings.  Likewise, it takes time to strip away the distractions that we bring before God.  It is only once these distractions are peeled away that we can see our circumstances how God would have us see them.  Once we are given a bird's eye view, we can go forth with renewed purpose and hopefully a godly perspective on our lives.
It is my wish that everyone would make eyes closed, on their knees, heart laid bare prayer a significant part of their day.  Thirty minutes, one hour, two hours--schedule it in and stick to it.  I believe that God often shows up when we show up.  Of course, He can do whatever He pleases, but it often seems He doesn't act until we do.