Excerpt from "A Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs

This is one of my favorite books and with all the extra time we've been setting aside for prayer these past few weeks, I thought this was a relevant passage

-Ryn



I have my head bowed and my eyes closed. I’m trying to pray, but my mind is wandering. I can’t settle it down. It wanders over to an Esquire article I just wrote. It wasn’t half bad, I think to myself. I like that turn of phrase in the first paragraph.

And then I am hit with a realization. Andd hit is the right word- it felt like a punch to my stomach. Here I am prideful about creating an article in a midsize American magazine. But God- if He exists- He created the world. He created flamingos and supernovas and geysers and beetles and the stones for these steps I’m sitting on.

"Praise the Lord." I say out loud.

I’d always found the praising-God parts of the Bible and my prayer books awkward. The sentences about the all-powerful, almighty, all-knowing, the host of hosts, He who has greatness beyond our comprehension. I’m not used to talking like that. It’s so over the top. I’m used to understatement and hedging and irony. And why would God need to be praised in the first place? God shouldn’t be insecure. He’s the ultimate being.

Now I can sort of see why. It’s not for him. It’s for us. It takes you out of yourself and your prideful little brain.

-From "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs