A prayer for heavy hearts this week

I don’t watch the news much, so I wasn’t aware of the recent events until Thursday: The shooting of a political activist in Utah, the stabbing of a Ukranian refugee on a train in Charlotte, and the school shooting just an hour away from where I live.

Needless to say, I’ve been catching up and praying as I go…all of them tragic. All of them just adding to the list of violent accts that go on all the time. It can be overwhelming. It seems odd that one person’s death seems ‘more important’ than others in this whole online conversation, and I know its because he was more known and watched.. and more vocal. I suspect it would be the same had someone on the other side been murdered instead.

Yet last night I woke up and didn’t have words to pray any more, all I could do was come back to the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray… and use it as a springboard to pray for our nation.

I hope this gives you some words too.

Our Father who is in heaven

We are here, you are there, and sometimes the noise is confusing as to where to find truth. but you are truth, you have invaded time and space and somehow you work in the messiness of human history. We turn our eyes to you, for we need you now.

Holy is YOUR name

Not any name here on earth, not any political party or ideology, not even the way I think about things because I know in my humanity I can get all twisted up and pick my own ideas of how things should be without even realizing it. But we carry your name and that carries responsibility that I fear we are not such a great job at. Help

Your Kingdom come

The one your prophets spoke of, where there is room for every nation, every color to worship you, where fear and hate don’t have a place to hide. Where swords, political agendas, signs and protests are lain down and turned into plowshares, tools that instead of bringing death and pain till up the ground and make it ready for seeds to be planted, to bring life and flourishing forth to be shared and enjoyed by all.

The one that is quiet and unseeming from the eyes of the politically powerful, like it was when you walked the earth. The one that grows slowly like yeast raising bread, like seeds that take time to grow and yield fruit. The one that transforms our lives so that when we are known and loved we cannot help but love deeply and begin to transform our world as well.

The one that isn’t ‘our nation’ but your kingdom, your right to rule, one without earthly boundaries and has always included people that surprise us, because your mercy and compassion are greater than ours will ever be.

Your will be done

That we love our neighbors, and remember that sometimes our neighbor is someone we might not normally want to help given our human tendencies, but because you showed us love, we can step out of our comfort zone and be your hands and feet.

That we love our enemies. Domestic and foreign, people on opposite sides of the fence from us even in our own churches and neighborhoods. That we do not call down fire from heaven like the disciples wanted to, but that we love and rely on your Spirit to humble our hearts, forgive, and show mercy.

That we can rightly distinguish good from evil, being wise as serpents but gentle as doves, where the ones who are not listened to are heard and seen, where the igored ones are shown dignity, and where the power that is displayed is one the heals, not divides, one that serves, not conquers or demands; where we do the hard work of loving our enemies – with our actions and our words… everywhere, including social media.

On earth as it is in heaven

Yes. Please. Because we think we know what this looks like but our world is a far cry from it now, even if its better than some times in the past. Open our eyes to see the beauty of community, restoration of relationships, and care of your creation. Remind us that our hope is in you, and that you are an anchor, always, until this is true. Help us be peacemakers across divides that seem impossible.

Give us today our daily bread

Not our daily news feed or law finally passed or cancelled, not our favorite person in office or our followers liking our posts… but give us YOU, the very bread of life. Remind us that there is a river in our souls that needs to drink from your source, one that is pure and satisfying, one that will satisfy us as with the richest of fare, like Isaiah said so long ago.

Forgive us our sins

Our failures as humanity, because sometimes we can love and forgive and work towards justice and sometimes we are just tired because the work never ends. Forgive us when we can’t see beyond our own agendas to ‘sit in the ashes’ of the people in pain around us. Forgive our addictions to people pleasing, to selfishness, to being loud when we need to be quiet, and inactive when we should speak. Forgive us when we make political agendas more important than the people government was supposed to serve, where we make judgements but don’t realize its just our personal opinion, for when we walk according to the letter of the law not the intent behind it.

As we forgive those who sin against us

Oh help us with this, because forgiveness is costly and largely a hidden work in our own hearts. Spirit show us where we skip over this unknowingly. Give us strength to forgive people who have hurt us by their words, their actions, the way they vote or their last social media post. Help us forgive our the ones who made us feel less important or ignored what we had to say or didn’t know how to handle a conversation, especially when it is a friend or family member. Those are hardest

Lead us not into temptation

I know there’a long list of easy ones like drunkenness and pornography and gluttony of all kinds But help us be aware of other temptations, especially the temptation to think that America is your kingdom, or that Israel is your kingdom, because you came saying your kingdom wasn’t of this world. The empire we live in isn’t always going to reflect the values of your kingdom. Help us not be tempted to make our nation, our political ideas, our bodies, our money or success our god.

But deliver us from the the evil one

Not from suffering and learning what it teaches, but from the ways the evil one causes division, causes us to doubt who we really are and how deeply we are really loved. The false agenda he poses that says if everyone in America were just Christian we’d be ok. Our country was brought forth with hope of religious freedom, and we rejected being subject to others, then we repeated the sins of our fathers. We are still reeling from this, and we are slow to heal. Deliver us from doing this again, over and over. Open our eyes to hidden things, because hate lives in the darkness. Shine your light of truth in our country and also in our lives, that we would walk with you, humbly.

Matt 6:9-13 in bold