The following was an email that I sent out to the congregation of our church. I hope that you find comfort in it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to really dislike the term “unprecedented”. For once, I would love to be living in highly documented, mundane, and predictable times wouldn’t you? It would be great to finish one day and just think “That’s exactly how I thought today would go.”
Yesterday was not one of those days.
As I type these words, I’m not sure what to think about the times we are living in. Yesterday as I watched the news footage of an attempted assassination on a former president, I just thought to myself, “Is this who we are now?”
It grieves me that so much civility has been lost and that unity seems like a distant dream. In all honesty, I felt hopelessness setting in.
When I woke up this morning, after a good night’s sleep (something that has alluded me over the past few weeks), I prayed for a friend and read through a few passages of Scripture. I was reminded that unity and peace are almost always fleeting, and that the people of God are charged with being peace and being unity to a broken world.
It is never easy and it is always a struggle. That’s what makes it so beautiful when you see it even if it is a glimpse. It reminds me of the model prayer, that I quote often on Sundays, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10
We should be working toward heaven on earth…not what we currently have, which seems more hellish.
This is not a time to double down on partisan politics, but to move away from it and realize that it is destroying our capacity to empathize with one another and work together toward peaceable solutions.
If Jesus is the center of our lives, and following Him is our priority, then we can bring hope to the hurting. Over the next few weeks, you will be encouraged to double down on your stance on politics because it is “the only solution to this problem.” This simply is not true and is a false paradigm that politicians use to manipulate people through fear, the cheapest and quickest of motivators.
Let me encourage you to do something counter-cultural. I want to ask you to double your efforts in prayer. Ask God to make you a conduit of peace rather than hostility and violence. Violence can take many forms. It can be in our actions but also in our words. This is not a time to “go to war” against”the other side”. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, “There is no ‘us vs them’ there is only ‘us’.” At the end of the day, whatever we do to “them” will be done to “us” collectively. Either through retaliation or the unintended consequence of leveling hatred and animosity at people.
As George Washington Carver once said: “Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.”
You will be tempted to watch the news 24/7 but I would ask that you find time to pray and ask to be peace and unity for our broken world. Embrace the love of God and reciprocate it to your neighbors, even though they may not return the favor. (Luke 6:31; 1 John 4:18; John 13:34-35)
Let’s go to God in prayer and move forward by being a conduit of peace and unity. Sure, that includes truth but it also includes love.
Here are some prayers that have helped me through difficult times and still continue to do that. God bless you and your families. I am praying for all of us. I love you guys. Take care.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.” Psalm 23:1-6
“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” Psalm 25:4-5
“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I was protecting them by your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture may be fulfilled. Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” John 17:9-19
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 2 Chronicles 20:12
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