Bill Hybels

From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values. It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living. To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption. Prayer is alien to our proud human nature. And yet somewhere,someplace, probably all of us reach the point of falling on our knees, bowing our heads, fixing our attention on God and praying. We look both ways to be sure no one is watching; we may blush; but in spite of the foreignness of the activity, we pray,