Now, don’t get all hating on me for this. I believe in the power of prayer. Because of prayer, perhaps some important people in my life are alive. Miracles can be recognized when we turn our focus toward gratitude and love.
But what I’m talking about here, is what you were born to do.
Not pray.
You were born with hands, feet, legs, a brain. And you’ve developed logic (hopefully), a sense of priorities, and god help us, compassion. You were born to do something in the physical world when something is wrong in the physical world. Born to heal the sick. Born to feed the hungry. Born to stop the violence, to change the minds, to wield the words that change minds. To act.
When something terrible happens, it is tempting to pray and feel done with it. But this is not what you are expected to do. This is not even what Jesus did. He did stuff. With his hands. And his mouth. He turned over tables. He made people share, so others could eat. He drank wine in all the wrong places, and the right ones. He raised the dead.
You were born to comfort with loving words and open ears. To heal with hands and tools of humans, to cook, to feed, to cuddle, to create, to shelter, and to fight like crazy to well-craft the stuff us humans have built with our own minds and physical matter. Yes, we are supposed to makeover our governments, our cultures, our schools and institutions. For the better, to be in harmony with all that great “prayerful” stuff. It isn’t all God’s job, God doesn’t really have hands down here. Ooops! yes God does.
If someone is hurt. If many someones are hurt. Your first job is to do your first job. Your last job is to pray.
Amen
Merry Christmas