“The distinction between… personal religion and social religion which we are wont to make, must forever remain artificial and unrealistic.”

• Howard Thurman, A Strange Freedom

As I scan the landscape of this country in which I was born – a country I once saw as a shining city on a hill, capable of instructing the rest of the world about how to knit together a widely diverse population with the yarn of a shared and buoyant vision of service and sacrifice – I scan the headlines and the events of the day and I can’t believe my eyes. 

What happened? 

How did our darkest fears manage to shove aside our brightest hopes? Where did that ethic of “others above self” that I thought all Americans bought into go? When did the majority of voting age adults gather and decide that MY NEEDS now outweigh OUR NEEDS? 

I don’t remember being asked to chime in on the matter. 

And yet, here we are. What the ever-loving hell is going on?

The United States (thanks, Benito, for that lesson in perspective) seems to be hurtling at breakneck speed toward some dystopian hellscape of white supremacy, science skepticism, global privateering combined with narcissistic isolationism, rule by law-proof oligarchs, and runaway environmental rape and pillage. 

A rage response lurks there, just below the surface. I see that I so very badly want to hoist these goons up by their own petards and give the country’s steering wheel back to responsible adults. My inner vigilante wants to serve that gang of thugs now roaming the halls of power a full plate of the fear and desperation they seem so bent on serving black and brown people today. 

“That’ll show ‘em,” I whisper. “That’ll put those jabronies in their place.”

“OK,” a voice seems to answer. “Suppose you do exactly that. Then what?”

“Well, then everything gets fixed, and we are right back on track,” I stammer. And yet, as soon as I utter those words, I recognize they are colored with deep shades of naivete and recklessness. Lord Acton’s stern warning about the universally corrupting nature of power leaps, unbidden, into my brain.

And then I do what I should have done right at the beginning. I drop to my knees and pray.

You will then understandably ask, “What good do ‘thoughts and prayers’ do against an evil this monstrous? Aren’t you just trying to escape into the sweet by-and-by and leave the rest of us behind to clean up this mess? How about you get out, get active and grow a pair instead?”

Friend, I am out. I am active. I am hitting the streets with my sign(s). I am writing my senators and my congressional representative. I am donating to the candidates I think might be able to help stem this tide of depravity.

No, I do not engage the resources of prayers and faith in the vain hope of escaping the madness. Neither am I petitioning God to let loose a couple of strategically placed lightning bolts to zap down and “clean house,” as it were.  

Instead, I drop to my knees as a way of remembering the eternality of the One who created us all. I pray to be reminded that though God’s justice may operate on a different timetable than mine, it is certain and unerring. 

Always has been. Always will be.

I pray also for the healing of those diseased parts of our national leaders’ minds… the parts that have led them to wreak unspeakable damage to fellow humans. I pray realizing full well that my prayer might be futile. But I also remember the words from James 4:2 that tell us, “You do not have because you do not ask.” And so, I ask.

And finally, I pray for myself. For just a little more energy. A little more hope. A little more compassion when that well sometimes feels as dry as the Mojave Desert.

May I suggest you give it a try? When every day gives you the feeling that you are banging your head against the same wall, getting nothing in return except a headache and a bruise. When the arrows are all gone from your quiver. When your gas gauge is pegged below “E”. 

When all of that happens at once, try reminding yourself that there is Someone standing by, ready to help. Someone who has resources you can’t even begin to imagine.

Abundant blessings;