To Pray or Not to Pray

That is the question here today. Is there such a thing as too much prayer? Or too long of a prayer? Or what about praying in public? Why the prayer questions? Let me set it up for you. By now, if you know me, or read my blog regularly, you know that I work full-time. Not by choice, my heart is at home, but I try to make the best of the situation. I actually really do like my job. Good thing, since I spend so much time here. I have been at this job for 8 months now, and in that time I have learned a lot about the people who work here. But there is one person in particular that stands out from the rest. Let me tell you about him.

I knew the first time I met the guy he had to be a good person. He has the last name version of my youngest, and his initials are PP (hee hee)but I will call him P Philips. P Philips is one of our maintenance men here. Need a bullentin board hung up outside your office? He's your guy. Is your office too cold? He's your guy. Want to win the tree decorating contest at Christmas? He's your guy! A true "johnny on the spot" except his name is P, so I guess you could say he's "P on the spot". But that's another post. Back to my story.

I am a master at the sport, if you will call it that, of people watching. People are crazy! They do crazy things, they wear crazy things, and they say even crazier things. So my first few weeks here provided me with numerous opportunities to perfect my sport. You can learn a lot about people by watching them interact with others. So there I was, in the breakroom at work, the first time I noticed P Philips. What is that he is doing? Praying? over his lunch? Good guy, way to stand out! More power to you brother! But as the days turned to weeks, weeks to months, I quickly realized that P Philips was no ordinary pray-er. Every morning, I see P Philips in the break room where he is about to eat a lovely breakfast that a most loving wife prepares for him each morning before he leaves for work. We're talking eggs, toast, grits, sausage, bacon, the works! Every morning! That loving wife has to get up pretty early in the morning to prepare such a breakfast feast for P Philips. And I watch as he sits down to his bounty, laces his fingers and bows his head into those fingers and begins to pray. Now it really is a sight to see, and one cannot help but watch to see -

1 minute, still praying,

2 minutes, still praying - For goodness sake, man, you only get a 15-minute break, and your lovely breakfast is getting cold.

3 minutes - still praying.

Finally somewhere around the 4-5 minute mark, he says his amens, slowly raises his head, unlaces those fingers, and begins to devour his food.

Okay, so the man likes to pray. What's so wrong with that? I see P Philips pray every morning over his breakfast, I see P Philips pray every day over his lunch. I have even seen P Philips pray while our little heaven on earth of a breakroom is filled with people eating what they think is the best catered lunch in the world from Golden's on the Square (really people, the food is NOT that good - can we please try something different next time?) and everyone is so loud and crazy acting (nothing like free over-priced not so good food to get the natives going)but there in the mist is P Philips, hands laced, head bowed, offering up his gratitude to our loving Heavenly Father. Always with a 4-5 minute prayer. My curiousity is going to get the best of me one day, and I will have to ask this pecular man what he could possibly be praying for for sooo long in a crowded room of non-believers. But people accept him for who is his. They know P Philips will not consume one bite of food until he has adequately blessed it. Good man - yes, I think so. A little crazy - maybe - read on!

So yesterday, I was leaving work, and making the long trek across the parking lot to my beloved Martha. Now by the time I leave everyday, Martha sits alone in an empty parking lot because all of her friends have already left for the day. But yesterday, she wasn't alone. There to my wondering eye, a few parks away, sat a tan truck. Go Martha, I thought. Making new friends! Martha may be 60 now, but she is still a hottie! But the closer I get, the more I can see the tan truck is not empty. There inside, sat P Philips, fingers laced, head bowed, man praying. Holy moly, man! Are you kidding me? You can't even drive home without praying first? All this praying is beginning to seem a little odd to me. Seriously, who prays THAT much? Has P Philips never heard of keeping a prayer in your heart? That does me just fine as I make my way through the day. I have decided he must be extremely over-zealous with his beliefs, or he has done something really bad that weighs his conscious down, and feels the need to constantly relieve himself of said guilt.

So I ask you to think and respond - How much do you pray? Do you think P Philips is overkilling the prayer? Is that possible? And what do you think about praying in a very public, irreverant place? Seriously, how much prayer is too much prayer?