Prayer for Action

O God,
When it feels like the world is on fire, we don’t always know what to do.
Do we light candles and pray?
Do we scream and yell in the streets?
Do we open our wallets?
Do we prepare guest rooms in our homes?
Do we write letters and make phone calls?

We don’t always know what it looks like to make crooked ways straight,
to stand up to injustice.

We don’t always know what it looks like to call oppressors to account,
to bring them into the full awareness of the injustice they hold over others.

But we are begging for mercy, for justice, for all those things you tell us to look for.

We are begging for mercy for children who are cold and tired,
for parents who cannot stop aching.

The widowed ones and the orphaned ones are yours,
and if they are yours, they are ours, too.

When those children are crying in cages and we cannot get to them,
When those parents are desperate to hold their babies again and we cannot console,
Show us what it means to be the face of love.

Show us what it means to have hands and feet that only work for good.

We acknowledge that we are called to be people who fight for human rights,
and it is not a choice.

O God,
Teach us what self-care looks like.
Show us what strength looks like.
Show us what Love looks like.

Because we are a nation that has always oppressed children,
deeming them worthless,
pieces moved on a chess board
to punish and control cultures and peoples.

This is hatred in every sense.

Teach us how to be people who stand against it again and again
for the sake of every child
and every person who wants a quiet,
safe place to lay their heads at night.

Teach us to be brave, we pray,
When we have no idea what it looks like.

Amen.