Conversation

Conversation with an elderly relative, an atheist who thinks it’s demeaning to pray, which she characterized as “begging a man for favors:”

I said God’s not an old white dude with a beard in the sky, and I don’t “beg Him for favors” either; that’s not what prayer is. 

She asked, “So what is it then?”

I found myself trying to explain that God is all powerful and all-knowing and ever present, so He already knows what’s in my heart — He made it that way. Prayer is deliberately making myself vulnerable before Him, reaffirming that I have nothing to hide from Him and will be honest with Him … and not ashamed … about all my needs and thoughts and questions and fears, even the ones that aren’t pretty. It’s accepting the gift of His power in place of my vulnerability. 

Or something like that.