I can’t exactly remember how this brother launched into his overly long explanations in the middle of his prayer, but it so reminded me of any number of public prayers I heard for years. It really stuck out, though, because of the exaggerative nature in the way he expressed it.

It was simply so full of explanations as to the reasons behind his requests, and it was fairly obvious that he had added the background and the justification for his request for my benefit. He faltered a couple times when he had run way too far down a rabbit trail and had to backtrack.

As he was going through his explanations, I was considering interrupting him. But I waited until he was done, and then I asked him why he thought it was necessary to explain the whole story as if God didn’t already know it. My questions surprised him, but he knew what I was saying … and had to agree.

Jim

p.s. I woke up this morning and was hit with a single word that best described the tone of this man’s prayer: Apologetic. It was as if the presence of another listening in on his request made him feel the need to apologize for what he was asking, and so he kept trying to make it sound okay. In another setting, like a prayer meeting or something like that, it probably would have gone over better, but on the floor of Home Depot, it came across as one who was hoping that having a witness with him (me) and using an excessive number of words that he might get through to God’s ear.