A Prayer for Friday, June 19

Holy God,
  I need you.
  You are the author and creator of life.  You, and you alone, can redeem humanity from a sinful state, cleansing us of the sin that taints us, that clings to us like a stain and cannot be washed by our own efforts.  You alone can breach the stronghold of death, reached through the shadowy veil to pull us back into life, into light.  You alone have the majesty to command the wind and the waves that swirl around us, threatening to engulf us and lead us into despair.  You are righteous and perfect, worthy and awesome, and you stand forever.
  On the other hand, Lord, I am not.  I am imperfect and frail and faulty, filled with base desires and mixed motives.  I am not who you made me to be, and I am not who I desire to be.  I serve myself before others and ignore the needs of many to my own benefit.  I am finite and broken without you.
  In your grace, Lord, you reach down and choose to save.  You redeem us for eternal life, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, bind up our brokenness, determine our future and restore us to a place of hope and peace.
  You do all this, and you call us to be a voice in the world around us, speaking peace and hope into the dark places.  Lord, this world is broken.  There are hearts breaking in it, and there are communities who have fallen into division.  Violence claims hearts, and then it claims lives.  Families are shattered by the hatred that runs over from a chaotic soul, and many are left to try and pick up the pieces and make sense of senseless violence.  I do not know the way forward out of such turbulent chaos, but I believe that you have charged your people to be a light in the darkness.  May we serve one another, our friends and enemies, and in so doing weave strands of your piece into the fabric of our communities, that when life is frayed and relationships threaten to rend us in two, your peace might remain, keeping us united when all else threatens to separate.  May we be active as a people of peace, loving all and working together to build your kingdom here on earth.

Amen