Some prayers I would really like to pray in church small group but don't have the nerve:
Lord, one of your saints once said, "If that is the way you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few of them." Well, S. over there, you know she has been battling cancer for months. You know what she has been going through, the remissions, the false hopes, the chemo, being dangled on a string between hope and despair. And you know how we have been praying for her. She is one of your friends. I am not. My relationship with you is what it is. We don't need to discuss that. It is her we are talking about. Take a good look at how she is suffering, the pain she is going through. She is one of your friends. She has been faithful. And this is how you are treating her. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Why don't you do something?
And so-and-so's granddaughter, who she is trying to lead to you. Can't she appreciate the fact that her granddaughter is being honest about what she believes in or doesn't believe in? Or would she rather have her lie? Let grandmother and granddaughter learn to appreciate each other as they are without trying to change each other, and then maybe, if it is meant to be, if it truly is your will, if it truly is the truth, then maybe her eyes will be opened and her heart changed.
And about this proposed mission to the trailer park--I pray that instead of coming in and saying we have the answers that those involved take time to really get to know the people they propose to mission to as they are, take time to get to know what their problems really are. That it is a much more complicated situation than they think; if they really want to turn things around there--and you know they need turning around--they are going to have to dig deep down and look hard at society. And ask, as I do, why it is that there is such a gap between the people who care but are powerless and the people who have power but do not care. Because we have a society that is increasingly treating poorer, less educated people as discards, sending employment overseas to exploit even poorer people. This has got to change.
Yes, I dare ask these things. Yes, I dare say them. Because they need to be said. It is time for you to act once more.
Lord, one of your saints once said, "If that is the way you treat your friends, it's no wonder you have so few of them." Well, S. over there, you know she has been battling cancer for months. You know what she has been going through, the remissions, the false hopes, the chemo, being dangled on a string between hope and despair. And you know how we have been praying for her. She is one of your friends. I am not. My relationship with you is what it is. We don't need to discuss that. It is her we are talking about. Take a good look at how she is suffering, the pain she is going through. She is one of your friends. She has been faithful. And this is how you are treating her. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Why don't you do something?
And so-and-so's granddaughter, who she is trying to lead to you. Can't she appreciate the fact that her granddaughter is being honest about what she believes in or doesn't believe in? Or would she rather have her lie? Let grandmother and granddaughter learn to appreciate each other as they are without trying to change each other, and then maybe, if it is meant to be, if it truly is your will, if it truly is the truth, then maybe her eyes will be opened and her heart changed.
And about this proposed mission to the trailer park--I pray that instead of coming in and saying we have the answers that those involved take time to really get to know the people they propose to mission to as they are, take time to get to know what their problems really are. That it is a much more complicated situation than they think; if they really want to turn things around there--and you know they need turning around--they are going to have to dig deep down and look hard at society. And ask, as I do, why it is that there is such a gap between the people who care but are powerless and the people who have power but do not care. Because we have a society that is increasingly treating poorer, less educated people as discards, sending employment overseas to exploit even poorer people. This has got to change.
Yes, I dare ask these things. Yes, I dare say them. Because they need to be said. It is time for you to act once more.
