During a retreat, my small group was asked what our favorite prayer or favorite way to pray was. I thought for a moment and I didn’t quite know how to answer because I’d never really talked about the way I prayed before. As the other people, around me answered with prayers from saints, I wondered what should I say. Should I come up with a generic prayer or say my favorite way to pray is when I’m sitting quietly? I didn’t know how to talk about my favorite way to pray. What if when I said it, people looked at me like I was weird and said, “That’s not praying.” It was my turn to answer the question, and I said, “This may seem a little weird but I believe God has a great sense of humor, so I like to pray through jokes. I like to tell God jokes, and in return, I feel like God tells me jokes.” Everyone was silent for a moment allowing the fear of rejection to set in and then suddenly everyone started talking about how it was so cool and interesting. This inspired me to talk more openly about the way I pray and my relationship with God.

I’m someone who loves routine, and when my routine is broken I often get thrown off my game. This is an aspect of my life seen through everything I do, except in my relationship with God. The routine of prayer I have been taught my whole life never sat well with me. I never really connected to this routine for some reason. Just to use the formula of ask for something, thank God for something, and listen to God for answers to your prayers or just pray a prayer like a Hail Mary didn’t work with me. Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with praying like this because I do pray that way too, but just not that often. I never really understood why I couldn’t pray like this very well, when everyone else seemed to get a lot out of this prayer style. It took a while but after I started to become more comfortable with my relationship with God, I realized everything about this relationship was different than the routine I was taught. I realized the more I forced myself into a routine with God the more I felt ignored or apart from God. It was because it wasn’t a natural relationship. I was just praying and believing in a certain way because that was the way I was taught and the way I had always done things. When I sort of let myself be myself in the relationship, I realized God and I had a lot of fun together. I’d ask God “What’s up?” and tell him about the super embarrassing thing I did 30 seconds ago. It slowly turned into where I’d just tell some jokes, and we’d laugh about them together.

Now, I think the idea of telling jokes might be confusing and I don’t know if I can explain it properly, but I’ll try. It’s not like God and I are swapping ‘why’d the chicken cross the road’ jokes or anything.  It’s more like I tell God a joke about life and God returns with laughter. I think an opportunity to experience God is through laughter. For me, in the moments of my life that were most difficult, laughter is what kept me going. Laughter is where I experience something closest to what I would say is joy. When you’re laughing, I think that is one moment in life you are truly present. We all experience God when we are truly present in the now. Now taking this idea further, I believe that God is experienced with people. So, whenever you are in communion with people, I think you have the opportunity to encounter God. Whenever I’m with people, I love to laugh and have a good time because I know for a moment they are truly present, happy, and are getting an opportunity to experience God the way I do. Through joy, being present, and being with people I realized that laughing was the best way I glorified and encountered God.

When I was in the throes of battling depression, I was seriously never happy. I’d pretend to be happy, but I never was. Never being happy caused me to have little hope in my life and I felt trapped in a mind that was always sad and angry. During this time, I felt the furthest away from God and the most alone. One day my friend showed me videos of people being silly or talking about random funny things. I was hooked immediately and every day I would watch similar videos because I would laugh, and for the short time of the videos, I felt happy and not alone. When I laughed, I was no longer a captive of my mind, but I was finally free. These videos gave me hope that helped me keep going every day even when I honestly didn’t want to. I believe these were moments when I encountered God because I laughed and no longer felt alone.

It might be weird or different, but laughing is the way I pray. Someone told me that it was cool to have such a causal relationship with God, but I would argue differently. I would never categorize my relationship with God as “casual” because it’s a serious relationship, but just in a way that that does not involve the routine that most people know and understand. I love the way I pray and I’m sure God does too. Our relationship with God is our own and it’s important that we pray the way that makes the most sense to us. Any way that we pray is correct because it’s us trying to connect with God. If the way you pray isn’t working for you, try thinking of the things you love to do and that bring you the most joy. Doing what you love is probably the best way for you to pray because God knows you are being you and that is exactly what God wants.

– Lake

She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. Proverbs 31:25