This McKenzie River channel reflects the peace and promise of dawn light, as the flow of the river finds its course amid tree debris and fallen rocks. 2024.

Approx. read time: 2:40 min.

In this Christian season of Lent I pray, daily, for particular world-stage leaders who engage in endless wars. It’s not easy prayer, expressed sometimes in tears and heavy wordless sighs. 

Grief, with her heart-wrenching lessons, comes to teach me a thing or two.

Grief teaches me that …

• injustice, expressed in every form of cruelty, is real;
• power to crush roams the world with impunity;
• unjust power arrangements predetermine and ensure who will win and who will lose.

Grief also teaches me that my tears affirm a deep intuition: that injustice and wanton oppression are unsustainable and ultimately cannot prevail. These dark, pervasive forces are eventually no match for the vitality of Life, from which humanity and all Creation springs.

I grieve, because the spirit of much of humanity is drained in the constant effort merely to survive, to meet basic needs, to protect one’s home, and loved ones, and land.

I grieve, because wonder, imagination, dignity, creative contribution, and the flourishing of Life in its many forms is not possible for much of humanity.

I grieve, because I know, to the core of my being, that Life—this most sacred gift—was never meant to be this way.

I grieve, even when the needle on the dial inches toward hope, only to watch it inch back toward yet more terrifying devastation.

Still, I pray. But why do I pray?

I pray, because I cannot sit by, idle and indifferent.

I pray, because I cannot unsee, nor unhear, the suffering in the killing fields.

I pray because I share in a complex humanity capable of toxic egoism, unbounded rage, and death dealing in the cause of domination.

I pray because I share also in the divine indelible kiss print upon the human soul, the human spirit, which awakens compassion, kindred bonds, and a united commitment to create a world that works for everyone.

I am not “pro” one nation, one tribe, nor “against” another. 

I am for justice which deeply transforms, and for peace which liberates for rightful participation in fullness of Life. 

With all my heart, mind, and strength, I am for a world of justice, generosity, and joy.

Watch my free 8-part YouTube series in my Peacemaking Playlist. And fortify yourself with my book Gospel Vulnerability: The Key to Costly Love. It delivers insight and strength for our times.

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Be well. Live in peace. Love one another. And please, share this post with friends!