WHEN A NATION STOPS READING, WHAT ELSE DOES IT FORGET?
A New Book About Prayer Arrives at a Time When America May Need to Remember the Basics
There was a time when a book could stop us.
We would sit with it.
Underline a sentence.
Turn back three pages because something refused to let us move on.
Think.
Question.
Remember.
Sometimes we would close the book altogether because what we had just read demanded a few quiet minutes.
Today, many of us barely stop scrolling long enough to finish a paragraph.
And something troubling is happening beneath the surface.
America's reading skills are declining.
The 2024 Nation's Report Card found average reading scores fell another two points for both fourth- and eighth-graders compared with 2022. Only 31% of fourth-graders performed at or above NAEP Proficient. Among America's high-school seniors, an estimated 35% were academically prepared for college-level reading, down from 37% in 2019.
And this is not merely a children's problem.
Federal adult-skills data show that between 2017 and 2023, the percentage of American adults ages 16–65 performing at the lowest literacy level increased from 19% to 28%. Average adult literacy scores also declined.
Those numbers should disturb us.
But there is another kind of reading problem that cannot be measured by an examination.
We are having trouble reading ourselves.
WE CAN READ A SCREEN—BUT CAN WE STILL READ OUR HEARTS?
We consume headlines.
Notifications.
Posts.
Comments.
Videos.
Arguments.
Breaking news.
Advertisements.
Opinions.
Thousands upon thousands of words pass before our eyes.
Yet somehow, with more information available than perhaps any generation before us possessed, many people seem increasingly unable—or unwilling—to sit quietly long enough to ask:
Who am I becoming?
What do I believe?
What have I allowed into my heart?
What have I stopped valuing?
When did I become so angry?
Why am I so tired?
When did I stop forgiving?
When did I stop listening?
And perhaps...
When did I stop talking honestly with God?
That is where my newest book enters the conversation.
WHEN PRAYER SEEMS SO DIFFICULT—PRAY ANYWAY
The book is now available through Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HFGXMBLL
This is a book about prayer.
But after traveling through its pages, I realized it is also about something deeply human.
Returning.
Returning to conversation.
Returning to honesty.
Returning to forgiveness.
Returning to humility.
Returning to trust.
Returning to Scripture.
Returning to those basic human and moral values that become remarkably easy to lose when life becomes noisy.
And ultimately...
returning to the Father.
THIS BOOK WASN'T WRITTEN FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT
Quite the opposite.
It was written for the person sitting on the edge of the bed at two o'clock in the morning who doesn't know what to say.
For the mother worried about her child.
The father wondering how he will provide.
The grieving widow or widower.
The person staring at a medical diagnosis.
The pastor who has encouraged everybody else and quietly discovered that he is tired too.
The longtime Christian who remembers when prayer seemed easier.
The new believer afraid they're “doing it wrong.”
The person who prayed...
believed...
waited...
and didn't receive the answer they expected.
And yes—
the person who is disappointed with God but is afraid to admit it.
This book doesn't shout at that person:
“PRAY HARDER!”
It pulls up a chair.
WE HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE SHOUTING
That may be another symptom of where we are.
Everybody has something to say.
Fewer seem willing to listen.
We debate before understanding.
Respond before considering.
Condemn before asking questions.
Sometimes we are so busy proving ourselves right that we've forgotten how to say:
“I was wrong.”
Or:
“Forgive me.”
Or:
“I don't know.”
Or:
“Help me.”
Those aren't signs of weakness.
Sometimes they are evidence that a human being has finally become honest.
And prayer begins in that same place.
Not performance.
Not vocabulary.
Not religious theatrics.
Honesty.
470 PAGES—IN AN AGE THAT WANTS EVERYTHING IN 15 SECONDS
Yes.
The finished book is approximately 470 pages.
Somebody might ask:
"Who's going to read 470 pages today?"
Fair question.
But perhaps an even better question is:
What happens to us if we stop reading anything that requires patience, thought, reflection, and time?
Not every problem can be solved in a 30-second video.
Not every wounded heart needs a slogan.
Not every spiritual question fits inside a meme.
And some journeys cannot be rushed.
This book intentionally refuses to overdrive the weary traveler.
Sometimes we walk.
Sometimes we stop.
Sometimes we unpack something we've been carrying.
Sometimes Scripture speaks.
Sometimes we laugh.
Sometimes there are tears.
And occasionally...
we simply sit beside the road.
Because people aren't machines.
Souls need time.
PERHAPS WE NEED TO LEARN TO SIT AGAIN
Sit without scrolling.
Sit without arguing.
Sit without television.
Sit without needing to be entertained.
Sit with a Bible.
Sit with a book.
Sit with your spouse.
Sit with your children.
Sit with your thoughts.
Sit with your mistakes.
Sit with your memories.
And perhaps most importantly...
sit with the Father.
We might discover things about ourselves that make us uncomfortable.
Good.
Growth has never required us to remain comfortable.
Maybe we'll realize there is someone we need to forgive.
Someone we need to apologize to.
Something we need to put down.
A relationship we need to repair.
A habit we need to change.
A Scripture we need to obey.
A prayer we need to pray.
Or a road home we need to take.
THE BOOK DOESN'T WANT YOU TO NEED THE BOOK
That sounds like a terrible marketing strategy.
Smile.
But it's true.
When Prayer Seems So Difficult—Pray Anyway was never intended to make readers dependent upon James Langston.
I'm a pointer.
A fellow traveler.
I can sit beside you.
Walk a few miles.
Share some things I've learned over more than five decades of walking with God.
Point toward Scripture.
Maybe help you unpack a heavy backpack.
But eventually...
I need to get out of the way.
Because you don't ultimately need the author.
You need the Father.
As the journey progresses, my voice deliberately becomes quieter.
The traveler begins walking more confidently.
Eventually, instead of asking:
"What would James say?"
I hope something inside the reader instinctively says:
“Father...”
Then the book has done its job.
READING MAY BE DECLINING. THINKING DOESN'T HAVE TO.
The national literacy statistics tell us something important about education.
They cannot tell us everything about the human heart.
We should be careful not to confuse declining test scores with declining morality; one does not automatically prove the other.
But they can make us ask a larger question:
What are we losing when sustained reading, reflection, contemplation, and careful thought disappear from everyday life?
Because societies don't merely need people who can decode words on a page.
We need people who can think.
Listen.
Discern.
Question.
Reason.
Remember.
Empathize.
Forgive.
Learn.
Change.
And recognize when they've taken the wrong road.
Those qualities matter in schools.
They matter in families.
They matter in churches.
They matter in government.
They matter in communities.
And they certainly matter in our relationship with God.
SO I'M ASKING YOU TO DO SOMETHING ALMOST RADICAL
Read.
Not merely my book.
Read something worthwhile.
Read to your children.
Read with your grandchildren.
Read history.
Read something that challenges what you think you know.
Read something that requires you to stop and think.
And above all:
Read the Bible.
Don't surrender your mind to algorithms, headlines, influencers, politicians, preachers, authors—or me.
Think.
Search.
Pray.
Discern.
We've spent enough time being told what to think.
Learn again how to think.
And then take those thoughts before God.
WHEN PRAYER SEEMS SO DIFFICULT—PRAY ANYWAY
If you've prayed and nothing seems to have happened...
this conversation is for you.
If you've waited...
come.
If you're grieving...
come.
If you're disappointed...
come.
If you've wandered...
come home.
If you're angry with God...
tell Him.
If you're afraid...
tell Him that too.
If you don't know what you believe anymore...
start where you are.
And if you open your mouth to pray and the only word that comes out is:
“Father...”
Stop worrying.
You have already begun.
Because beneath all 470 pages...
beneath the stories...
beneath the Scripture...
beneath the conversations...
beneath every lesson learned along that long road...
there is one truth I hope the weary traveler remembers:
THE FATHER IS STILL LISTENING.
You don't need a perfect prayer.
You don't need an impressive vocabulary.
You don't need every question answered.
You simply need to come.
When prayer seems so difficult—Pray Anyway.
📖 Available now on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HFGXMBLL
📖 Online Book Preview:
https://tinyurl.com/39xkajvt
Pilgrim Outreach Ministries International
Your Feet to the Nations
🌎 Ministry: pomitaly.homestead.com
📚 Bookstore: thewilltosucceed.homestead.com
📰 Ministry Blog: joybells49.blogspot.com
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