The rules of the game as laid down

Found via Stardust:

Here is a beautiful excerpt from Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), anthologized in African-American Humanism: An Anthology edited by Norm R. Allen Jr. (1991)

. . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws.

I post this not because it illustrates my reasons for becoming an ex-Christian, but because it was how I realized I already was one. This is not to cast aspersions on those to whom prayer is still an important part of their lives…this merely reflects what I found in my own experience, and what I have seen in others. When I relied on God and prayer to meet my needs, I became lazy about meeting them myself. When a stumbling block appeared in my path, I didn’t see it as a challenge to overcome, but instead as a “sign” that perhaps I was on the wrong path (compared to what was meant to be).

For me, there is a great deal of strength in taking responsibility for my own behaviors and choices.