Son, if you know how to cheat, now would be a good time. —Earl Weaver, Baltimore Orioles manager, during a mound visit to a beleaguered young pitcher who had just loaded the bases with no outs
* * *
Our nation is in the throes of destruction. We are beleaguered. Foundations crumble. Walls fall. Courts teeter.
Millions feel hopeless. Democrats look clueless. The vandals are gleeful. Resistance flounders.
Patriots, if you know how to pray, now would be a good time.
Let’s do it.
Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, hear our prayer. O thou great Jehovah, destroy our enemies and grant us victory.
OOPS. Too late. The other side beat us to it.
Their side gloats. Our side mopes.
And yet both sides pray to the same God, or so said President Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address.
Maybe then. Not now.
I don’t pray to their god. Their god is too small. Aloof. Vengeful. Judgmental. Fickle. White. Male. Christian. Republican.
An idol.
My god isn’t the mirror opposite of theirs. My god is nothing. No thing. My god is here, there, and everywhere.
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
(Psalm 139)
As many mystics, including the apostle Paul, have said: God is the one in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
God is being, not a being.
God is the ground of our being.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. (Psalm 139)
Prayer, for me, is alignment. Attunement. Attention.
Prayer is the intentions of the heart, spoken or not, vibrating through the web of life and back again.
Good vibes, indeed!
We and God are two sides of one coin. Two sides of one self.
Separation is an illusion.
This is indeed a good time to pray. But then, it’s aways a good time to pray.
So, yes, pray your heart out. But also work your butt off for change.
It’s not either-or. It’s both-and.
May our prayers embolden us to change the things we can and never accept the things that are unacceptable.
O God of every nation,
of every race and land,
redeem the whole creation
with your almighty hand.
Where hate and fear divide us
and bitter threats are hurled,
in love and mercy guide us,
and heal our strife-torn world.
—William Walker Reid Jr.
Amen; Awomyn! Prayer is the most wowerful “thing/nonthing” in all the worlds. You said it all, Randy…pray, & pray in action, do what I can, with all my heart, mind & soul… we are all in this; together.
Great words to start my day this Sunday, thanks. “ This is indeed a good time to pray. But then, it’s aways a good time to pray.
So, yes, pray your heart out. But also work your butt off for change.
It’s not either-or. It’s both-and.”
Your words are powerful and insightful. Prayer is not about piety, but paying attention. Corrie ten Boom raised a profound question: “Is prayer your steering wheel or spare tire?”
Prayer is a human longing of the spirit for wholeness, grace, justice and a better world. Ted Loder put it this way: “For at last I believe life itself is a prayer, and the prayers we say shape the lives we live, just as the lives we live shape the prayers we say.” May prayer be our steady steering wheel through these difficult, bumpy and unsteady days.
A coup to stop the coup? Anyone?
This moning’s hymn.Love these Anglican’s
THERE’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice
Which is more than liberty.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make his love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
With a zeal he will not own.
F. W. Faber
May God give us the strength to struggle for justice, the will to work for a love that includes everyone, the joy that fills the spirit in every act of solidarity, the faith that our best is enough.
May we know deep in our souls that faithfulness to the God of Love is our love for everyone and all creation. And that love requires conflict with evil.
“This is indeed a good time to pray. But then, it’s aways a good time to pray.” I appreciate that notion, and say, Amen!
There are those who calculate we are some 120 generations from the days of King David, 120 generations of guidance and solace from initial writings to canonized books, an enduring narrative, a guide to who and what to love, and, yes, who and what to hate.
We are now 5 generations from the post-World War II process for the denazification of fascist Germany. It was meant to sort out the population: who were hard core Nazis (some 8 million party members) and some 45 million who went along to get along. Tribunals used 5 levels of categories ranging from major offenders to exonerated people.
Bogged down by the caseload, members of the Nazi Party born after 1919 were “exempted on the grounds that they had been brainwashed.” Dwight Eisenhower thought the denazification process would take about 50 years.
We are 80 years on. Pray harder and raise hell.
For me prayer or meditation is meant to center us; to bring us back to where we come from, our eternal essence. This essence, spirit, or god is no respecter of persons—good or bad— not a Democrat or Republican, it is available to all, but only to be used for good, not evil. It knows no evil. It gives us life freely and we decide how to live it—no strings attached. Then we all return to the eternal essence in the end—all of us! Time to bring more good into the world I guess. Let’s get busy.
I praise the piece/peace, Randy–and your readers’ comments. I will share a brief personal experience, a mistake, that I have since embraced.
I mis-remembered a title of Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Every Step Peace, as Every Step Prayer. In a walking meditation outdoors once, devoted to a friend’s recent profound losses, I engaged in “every step, prayer.” It’s life changing.
Try it! 💜
Thank you Reverend Randy, your posts have been a godsend.
Thank you Randy. Thank you Steward. And thank you for Reid’s poetry, the highest form of literature
Everybody prays when the chips are down. I don’t care who you are. Be it a Buddhist, a Baptist, an atheist or a Jew–let’s not forget agnostics too. Praying is a natural human response it seems. Unless, of course, something clobbers you on your blindside. Many of us possess more than our share of those. Then we don’t know what hit us.
Thank you.