September 12, 2020

“Out there,” nothing much has changed. The Dems excoriate the Republicans, and the Republicans troll the Dems. Those entrusted with the powers of government are more interested in fixing blame than fixing problems. The west coast burns again till we wonder if there can be anything left. One can agonize over these to no avail. We can do our best to make our part of the world a better place, but much of what is happening all around us seems impervious to human solution. So I pray. 

There are those who scoff at such talk. “We’ve heard enough about thoughts and prayers,” they have said. “We need action!” So they burn down cities, harass those who disagree with them, and post vicious memes and comments on social media. But I still pray. To those who believe in a mechanistic world, prayer is a fool’s occupation, but if there is any truth to my Christian faith, prayer reaches to the very heart of life, to the heart of God whose ways are not mine, and who operates on a different schedule. People prayed for thirty years for the Berlin Wall to come down, wondering if those prayers were doing any good. Then along came Pope John Paul and Lesh Walesa, and spiritual cracks began to be seen until November 9, 1989 when it came crashing down.

Tonight I pray for my country, for its representatives, and for the countless and nameless ones who through their own or others’ choices, have experienced life much differently than I. I pray tonight because it’s about all I can do; Linda and I split and stacked about two cords of wood today, which used up today’s supply of energy. That energy will come back to us when the snow flies, but for now, I just pray.