When called upon to pray aloud in a group, an evangelical automatically says "just" a few dozen times during the course of the prayer. This doesn't happen when other flavors of Christians such as Catholics or Episcopalians pray, but an evangelical cannot help it.
"We just come before you today, Father God, and just ask that you pour out your spirit upon us. Just renew our hearts and help us know your plan. Knock down any barriers in our hearts and just show your will to us and, uh, just help us love you."
This post and the ensuing comment thread originally appeared here on Beliefnet.
5 comments:
AND saying "Lord", "God", "Jesus", "Father" repeatedly.
We'd never say someone else's name like that when talking to them ...
I just think it's got something to do with people being just a bit uncomfortable with speaking in public. They just want to do a good job and just want to hurry up and not say anything too, just, stupid.
I'm just as guilty as the next evangelical on this one, but I have been working on it.
back (and I mean WAY back) in my youth, I found myself doing this. I could not understand it at all.
I think people do this because they subconsciously think it will increase the chances of God's answering their prayers.
"Lord, we just ask you to .. just heal Bob's flu" really means "God, work with me, I'm not asking for much here."
Don't forget to put a tongue click before each 'just'.
Post a Comment