A Bold Decision

For him prayer was to simply repeat

Fixed words daily, a mechanical feat,

Not knowing it wasn't to say words mere,

But to speak to God and attentively hear

Whatever it was that God wanted to say,

The guidance that He sought to convey.

Those he knew considered prayer to be

A wordy incantation, some magical key,

Words to please God, flatter and charm,

To earn good fortune and keep off harm.

None of his folks had even once heard

Of prayer other than reciting many a word.

They didn't know God also can speak,

To us mere humans, sinful and weak.

Had they been told that He does so,

And thus His guidance we can know,

They might declaim, “It can’t be true!

Blatant blasphemy! Oh cursed be you!”

Prayer into a big burden they'd made,

Offered to a deity, fierce and staid,

Swift to anger in a manner severe,

Of whom they lived in mortal fear.

They piously declared, loud and clear,

As if wanting the whole world to hear:

“Only one way to pray God will accept—

Ours, the best way to offer Him respect.”

But this false claim, he could now see,

Was a product of their great vanity,

A mere lie on which they'd been fed,

Surely it wasn’t what God had said!

He no longer believed those who dared say

That theirs was the one right way to pray,

For, he now realised their claim as a hoax

To exercise control over gullible folks.

 And so, soon he came to boldly decide

To set their prayer method firmly aside,

To what they dictated being fully averse,

With God he'd in his own way converse.

In listening to God and sharing his mind

His own way of prayer he came to find.