I was talking with a girl who was
part of a college's Christian ministry team. As she was sharing some of the
deep parts of her life she expressed a statement that shocked me -'I don't
pray... I don't know how.'
This cute, smart, incredibly
artistic girl was almost in tears because she felt like she was failing in one
of the main parts of Christianity. I looked at her and spoke the first thing
that came to my mind... you don't have to have the same Christianity as your
grandparents. You don't have to pray using words like 'Thou' and 'art'.
I told her about my friends who
call Jesus 'dude' and 'bro'. That she should talk to God (pray), just like she
would chat with a friend on Facebook. I told her about a friend who prays just
like she's reading a letter. That God speaks to her through visions and color -she's an artist and God is creative.
As we talked her eyes got bright
and she got a big goofy grin on her face. She went from feeling like a failure to being excited about spending time with God and about who He
created her to be.
It breaks my heart to think that
there are Christians out there who don't pray because they don't know how. I
never realized that there was a formula to having a conversation with someone
that you are in a relationship with.