It is cloudy and cold outside, but on this day last year, it was all blue skies. The flag was waving this way and that under a hot sun, in a cold crisp wind. Nature had me thinking on contrasts. Your nature, was telling me a story.
I remembered that story again today, one year later, on January 6th 2024, as I watch the flag flipping and flapping, furling and unfurling just the same. It blows right. It blows left, tangling up to peacefully rest for moments in the center.
I think of our country, of all the people, not just those other people but me included, of all the things we collectively do and say, text and like, thumb up and down, all in the name of Truth, in the name of Love, in the name of You. Some of it is very good and some of it, so very bad. We get much wrong and still, You love us.
Help us hug our humility, Lord. Help us acknowledge just how very small we are in the face of You and yet you love us and count us, as you do every grain of sand.
I pray for our country Lord. I pray for all of us to lean into love and truth and bend away from anything less. I pray for today, that I am with You enough to notice words, spoken or written, projected from phones and tv screens, words that do not scream of Your love and truth. I pray I have the wisdom and courage to turn away from, or at the very least, question anyone who does not truly show humility in their words and actions. It can all be so addictive listening to all the anger and fear. A person can get so sucked in, so lost in it all.
No one person has all the answers. No one person can possibly get it all right Lord, so the best we can pray for in our leaders is that they be humble enough to know their limitations and brave enough to work together, to make the best decisions for our country and our world.
Our lives were created by You for so much more than to wallow in anger and hatred, losing sight of You for any one person, or group, or cause. We haven't got time for it. There are no easy answers to difficult long-standing problems. It seems the only solutions are found in coming together. We have love work to do. Help us find a way to live and work together again Lord.
I don’t know who our next president will be so I can only pray that they seek You, reach out to You Lord, first and last. Help us do the same.
Amen
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