Thoughts & Prayers

I’m actually a believer in “thoughts and prayers”. As a Christian I do believe in prayer, though I suspect that prayer is more for me than a prompt for God to respond to my desires or requests. Of course “thoughts and prayers” has become somewhat of a meme in the aftermath of tragedy, particularly mass shootings in America.

For those who do believe in the power of prayer and have done so after the countless number of mass shootings in this country, I wonder what you are praying for.

Are you praying for comfort for those who have lost a child, a parent, a friend? What else are you praying for? I suspect some may pray for justice in eternity. Perhaps?

I’ll tell you what I pray for. Justice 𝗻𝗼𝘄. Change 𝗻𝗼𝘄. Repentance 𝗻𝗼𝘄. I pray that fellow Christians in America would repent from their love affair and idolatry of guns and freedom. What does it say about what Christians value when we succumb to fear and insistence on our rights? What did Jesus say about fear? What did Jesus say about our rights?

I remember when I was a teenager coming to the realization that there was quite a bit of cultural preference being taught in churches and within Christian culture; a veritable entangling of American cultural ideology with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The older I get the less Gospel I see in churches and among Christians and the more American culture I see.

Memo to my fellow Christians: Jesus calls us to repentance. Jesus calls us to non-violence. Jesus calls us to care for the poor, the orphans and widows, the oppressed. Jesus does NOT call us to the American way. Jesus does NOT call us to middle-class white values. Jesus came to redeem everything. And he calls us to be part of that redemptive process NOW. The eucatastrophe is coming…all sad things will become untrue. Will you be part of it? Or will you continue your idolatry, calling out for a king, calling out for power?