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Hippo prays. He's brushing his teeth and he's praying. He often prays
whilst brushing his teeth, it's the perfect time. He can't very well talk,
his hands are already in use, and he feels the need to pray, so why not
kill two birds at a time? Very efficient, praying whilst brushing.
Hippo uses the word 'like' when he talks. He says it when he's searching
his mind for the right word to use in a sentence. Hippo doesn't say 'like'
when he prays. When he's searching for the right word to say in prayer, he
merely parrots a statement or two from his 'repetoire' of small prayer phrases.
On this particular night, Hippo asked God to clear up his [Hippo's] acne,
and thanked God because "you are the God who serves." This last phrases was
one of those which Hippo had used since childhood, and threw into his prayers
whenever searching for what to say next.
But this time was different, this time he gave pause and actually thought
about what he was saying; he realized that his words were utterly false. The God
of Christianity, the God whom Hippo professed to serve was not "the God who
serves" but "the God who loves and whom we should want to serve and for whom
we should serve others". Hippo knew then that, deep down, all along he'd
really been paying homage to a god of his own making, a god who was there to
serve his every beck and whim, a god who was not God, and did not exist.
And Hippo spit out his toothpaste and went away enlightened.
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