Growing up as a sɔfoba (pastor’s child) can be one of the most thrilling experiences you can ever have, but the most fascinating of them all is how prayer becomes like bread and butter. You learn to pray, not as a knee-jerk reaction but to pray, like pray. For me though, that was my biggest hurdle. Lemme explain.
Now, in a pastor's house, you grow up hearing people pray so articulately and eloquently that you're left in awe. These are prayers which are sweeter to the ears than Shakespeare's writing. The flow is smooth, the words are soothing, and the content is calming. My God!
Then you, as a 12-year-old, are left wondering. Does God hear me when I pray? Yes, I might have read Chinua Achebe's Things fall apart, but does my little vocabulary set matter?
And so you're left with 2 options. To not pray at all, or to copy. Go big, or go home. To fake it till you make it. To chew the prayers, cos trust me, It can be unsettling to be called to pray and not have sweet prayers. Especially as a sɔfoba.
For me, I took solace in the fact that I cannot beat myself up. And so I chose to go home. To not pray at all. God won't hear my small prayers, I opined.
But I later learnt that I don't have to invoke the blessings of the 7 heavens to have my prayers listened to, talk of being answered. God hears my simple "God, abeg" and is willing to relate with me one on one. That, to me, is the most humbling part of being a Christian.
Think about it for a sec. I serve a God so big that the entire universe is his footstool, yet he's willing to come so low to the level of me, a Taadi-born, Kasoa-based boy. My Goodness! Unbelievable.
And so you learn to pray, not as eloquently, but to pray. To go before God and speak a mixture of English, Ewe, and pidgin. Then you splash it here and there with some twi. Surreal!
On some days, you pray for just 5 minutes. And on other days you just can't stop. You find yourself praying for Adwoa, the missionary in Pakistan. Sometimes, it's for the development and future of Artificial Intelligence.
On the most annoying of days though, you can't help but find yourself praying for Addo Dee. Paa Willy Show Boy. And you're left in annoyance. Like oh! How?
