Pray America

In the weeks leading to the election, our church added a weekly meeting on Sunday nights.    It was  called Pray America. It was a service on Sunday nights that began at 6:00 pm.  It was open to everyone.  I found that it came at a very crucial time.  A time when our country truly needed to be bathed in prayer.

When you walked into the sanctuary, the foyer displayed a large sign that read "Enter in a Spirit of Reverence." The tone was one of reverence.  It was a special time to enter into conversation with our God.  It is a self lead prayer time.  My husband and I usually pray our private prayers, then we prayed openly and publicly for our country.

Today, I found myself longing to walk into our church at 6:00 pm in the spirit of reverence, to pray for our country.  In "our" world, we often forget that "we" consist of 50 states, we consist of numerous cities, and many small towns. 

This week, one of those fifty experienced tragedy...another city has lived through an incident that took the lives of many children, most of them six years old.  The lives of several adults protecting these children were also taken.

There has been a constant display of images, interviews, and opinions on how this happened.  Many will suffer from this for years to come.  As much as we grieve for the families left behind, the students who must return to school and the leaders that must once again lead them...there is still another group that we must pray for and those are the first responders. 

No one is ever be prepared to spend hours at a scene trying to find answers for the family,  no one is ever be prepared to be surrounded by the images that only they will see, no one will go home with those images burned in their memory and walk with them as their constant reminders, no one will face the challenges and responsibilities of those first responders that must clear the scene and prepare the way for the others. 

Those children have a home with Jesus.  Jesus said "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." [Matthew 18:14]  Such a tragedy reminds us that we must continue to pray.  Everyday we must pray. 

What has happened in Newport, Connectitcut is sad for our entire country.  When one cries, we all feel it.  It is a time of sadness and grief both for those gone and those left behind. It is not a time to make this a platform for political issues, it's not a time to place blame, and it is not a time to question what could have been....it is a time to Pray America!