The divided United States of America.

 

Note: I wrote this prayer four years ago as a meditation for my Hospice Team. It remains my prayer, said more fervently than ever before. 

Dear God,

This new day has dawned with this country more divided than it has been since the days of the Civil War. Half of your people are rejoicing while the other half are stunned and sore afraid.

What divided us then continues to tear at the seams of the fabric of this nation.

We are a divided United States of America.

Help us to remember that the experiment called democracy is not over. It is still being tested. 

After 240 years of existence, the final results are not yet in. We still have work to do. It stretches out before us, across wheat fields and deserts, from the mountains to the prairies, from sea to shining sea.

In the midst of our sense of victory, help us to remember your call to us to love one another as you love us. 

In the midst of our sense of defeat, help us to remember that you still reign; that you alone are worshiped; you alone are God.

Help us to put aside our own feelings - jumbled and confused as they may be at the moment - in service of others, our families and friends and neighbors - here and around the world.

Help us remember your high calling to us to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation, love and peace, healing and hope in a world made dark by fear and hatred and brokenness.

Help us to rebuild this nation by seeking out your image in the face of others, finding the best in us to serve those who are the least, the lost and the lonely.

Help us to remember the words of one of your servants of old who reminded us that 'perfect love casts out fear'. Help us perfect our love.

We are your people. You know us by many names. 

You are our God. We know you by many names.

May we find strength in our diversity and seek the courage to live into what is written on every piece of currency in this nation: In God we Trust. 

In God. 

We Trust.

For only in you can we live in safety. Only in you will we find justice. 

Only in you will we know the peace that passes all human understanding. 

Amen.