As a new Christian, I figured out quickly that part of the deal was to pray. To pray a lot. And to pray on your knees. I got that impression very clearly from reading the Scriptures. I also got it from reading Early Church history and Christian biography.
 
Hegesippus, for example, who lived immediately after the apostles, described how James, the brother of Jesus and writer of the epistle bearing his name, “was in the habit of entering alone into the temple where he was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel.” This devotion to prayer earned James the nickname “Old Camel Knees”.
 
I also read of John Hyde, a missionary to the Punjab region of India toward the end of the nineteenth century. Like Old Camel Knees, Hyde was so given over to prayer that he, too, developed calloused knees. His nickname? “Praying Hyde.” Taking these men as my examples, I imitated their behavior until I, too, had developed callouses on my knees.
 
But here’s the kicker: I took pride showing them off!
 
I remember traveling to Florida in the mid-1980s to visit family—in particular Mom and Dad. My older brother was living in Tampa then and he noticed something peculiar about my knees (I was wearing shorts).
 
Now, I must tell you that I was very self-conscious of my legs and knees growing up. Okay, it was my entire body. I was a skinny and very long drink of water who could not gain weight no matter how hard he tried. My brother, of course, knew that about me already. When he asked me “What happened to your knees?” he was referring to the callouses that were so plainly visible.
 
I wanted to say, “I thought you’d never ask.” Instead, like a good Pharisee, I answered him with a somewhat elevated lift of the brow, “I got these callouses from praying.” And then looking around at the rest of my family: “Praying for all of you.”
 
I maintained those callouses on my knees for a number of years, but over time, they receded, and today they are mostly gone. Don’t get me wrong. I never stopped believing in prayer. But nowadays, I have trouble getting down on my knees and even more trouble getting back up! Seems a lot of my praying is done on the run—or on the walk—making intercession and appeals while breathing, whispering, imagining, dreaming.