God, this year has been so hard and it’s not over. We have been faced with a pandemic, and are looking toward a contentious presidential election and what will follow. We seek You and need Your loving presence in our world. A world that seems off kilter, a world that is filled with uncertainty, injustice, violence and unkindness. We turn to You, knowing You are the only one who can change us and soften our hearts to love each other as You love us.
We cry out for those who suffer from economic insecurity, for those who have to decide to spend what they have between medicine and gasoline for their cars. We cry out for those who pray that they don’t have an emergency that will require money they don’t have. We cry out for those who don’t have jobs and have to ask for help from their church or from a food bank. We cry out for all who have to stand on an unemployment line praying for a check that will tide them over. And we cry out for those that seek a job.
We cry out for those who have lost loved ones from the Corona Virus. And we cry out for those who died with no loved ones beside them, alone in a nursing home or in a hospital. We cry out for those on ventilators and those who could only say, “I love you” over Zoom or Facetime or on a phone. We cry out for those who are mourning. We cry out for healthcare workers who have given their all to care for others and don’t give up.
We cry out for those who have suffered from racial injustice. We cry out for the innocent people who are caught in the middle of the violence. Help us see our own culpability in the racial injustice in our world. And we cry out for ourselves. Help us see that we participate in the sin of ‘othering’. Help us understand the anger and the indifference so we can breach the great divide that separates people.
We cry out for those who have lost the ability to express what they believe without diminishing others. We cry out for our children who have been modeled a way to communicate that denies the human dignity of another. Help us find a way to discuss important topics with respect, seeking to understand and so come together.
God, help us vision a different world, one where there is work for all, where there is food for all, where there is healthcare for all. Help us vision a world that is filled with kind and gentle hearts. Help us vision this world, and empower us to create this world we dream of. Help us realize our power to make a difference – to fill the immediate needs of those who are suffering but also to work to create policies that eliminate these needs.
God, You are our hope, our strength, our comfort. We need You to inspire us and create in us something new.
Amen
