There are some things in life that we just do automatically, even though we later wonder why on earth we do them. One of them is praying. Even in this very secular and materialistic age most people still say they do it. A friend of mine, who is an agnostic – someone who doesn’t really know one way or the other if there is a God and a spiritual dimension beyond our material world – told me he often prays, but has no idea why because he doesn’t know if it produces anything. I told him about another man, who said that he couldn’t always describe what he gained by praying, but he could describe quite a few things he lost, including: anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity, and the fear of death. So perhaps the answer to our prayers is not always in what we gain, but what we lose; and losing those things turns out to be our ultimate gain.