Prayer for the Nation grieving the SANDY HOOK Elementary School murders in Newtown, CT

O Lord Our God, how we praise you as Author of Life for loving and accepting unconditionally all whom you have created. As a nation, we mourn the mounting human tragedies that were set in motion nearly 14 years ago with the 1999 Columbine, Colorado high school massacre.  The recently killing of 20 six and seven year olds, and six adults at a Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, has seared our nation's heart as we cry for these our children and members of our American family.  The sheer magnitude of our babies shot down at the starting gate of their young lives wounds us deeply O God, so we turn to you for comfort and strength to make sense of it all.   

In the escalation of mass murders--from a Ft. Hood, Texas Army base, to a Virginia Tech college campus, to an Arizona supermarket congressional greeting, to a crowded Aurora, Colorado theater, to an Oregon mall of Christmas shoppers--we mourn and cry out to you for answers to our "why" questions, we can find no where else?  From the depths of our sorrow, we seek the wisdom and courage to address with clear and open minds the right kind of gun control and mental health reforms these acts of senseless violence signal. 

O Lord, Our God, help us today to embrace your command to "love you and every neighbor as we love ourselves", especially the often hard to understand neighbors who withdraws to dark places that seem beyond our reach.  Through our tears and pain we remember and thank you for sending your beloved Son Jesus to earth to "bear our grief and carry our sorrows" for children taken too soon and much too brutally from our midst. Remind us today that children of every race and background are to be embraced as all of our children, as we remember to express our love more often and hug more tightly the children in our own families. We pray your comfort and strength for the journey of grief, anger, and forgiveness the families of the victims and perpetrators must endure as we hold them close in our hearts and continued prayers.  We rest now in the blessed assurance of your promises that you, O God,  "will be with us through troubles" and will "never leave or forsake us."  In the matchless and magnificent name of the One whose name is above every name, we pray. Amen. 

Want Joy and Peace In Your Life and World for Christmas; New Year? Talk to the God of Joy and Peace!

Since the day after Thanksgiving, I have been hearing Christmas songs like O Holy Night, O Little Star of Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, Hallelujah Chorus, and Little Drummer Boy, so many times, I hear them in my sleep.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love these songs.  I grew up on them.  I especially love the way different generations sing and perform them.  But the more I hear them, the more I am haunted by a recurring question.  Why does there seem to be so little joy and peace in the world today with so many people singing "joy to the world and peace to all people"? 

Just look around.  Malls are full of folks with nearly maxed out credit cards but pressed to buy even more.  Folks are going home for the holidays often with little to say after “how have you been?”, “how’s the weather back home?”, and “how was your travel?”  Wars in both Iraq (56,000 still there) and Afghanistan (nearly 100,000 troops), cost an estimated, $7 billion a month.  Home grown and international terrorists scheme daily attacks on America.  North and South Korea stare one another down at their common borders, playing “war games” that impact nations like ours.  Added to all that . . .the New Year is  just days away and the challenges of gang violence, sex trafficking, Haiti relief, immigration, home foreclosures, jobs shifting overseas, and slow American economic recovery are begging for leaders with courage, integrity, and commitment to the poor and underserved to show up.

What does all this mean to you?  Do you feel a spirit of joy and peace about your future? Your job?  Your home?  Your life?  Or. . .are you feeling that there’s something more you can do to make the world where you live and work just a bit more joyful and peaceful? 

Let me suggest two things that you and I can do right now to make joy and peace a reality in 2011.  Remember that happiness is based on circumstances that come and go, but joy is rooted in a sense of spiritual and emotional well-being whether things are good or bad in your life.  Peace is based on harmony within and among people.  Often, conflict and hostility come from self-centeredness and obsession with self, e.g. “me first” and “look out for number one”.   

First, to bring joy and peace into your world, find a cause bigger than yourself that helps someone less fortunate than you where you can make a real difference.  Big or small. . .it does not really matter.  How does that sound to you for starters?  

Second, get to know the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, who came into the world to forgive sins, save souls, and bring peace among people.  Spend time in His love letter to you . . .God's Holy Word (the Bible).  Talk to him like you would a close friend about the kind of leaders we need. . .like the ones you see on television or the Internet whose decisions impact your world and mine.  St. Paul, the writer of two-thirds of the New Testament, as an older man, told a young man named Timothy, who he was mentoring, how to bring joy and peace into the world.  He said, first of all, before you do anything else, pray for everyone, including those you do not like, and especially for rulers and those in authority that we might live peaceful lives. 

In other words, he was saying that there is a direct relationship between the kind of planet we live in and how often we talk to God about leaders. Their decisions can bring joy or conflict; peace or pain; poverty or prosperity to us.  To put it another way, we have the kind of leaders we pray for!  Why?  Because prayer does not change things. . .prayer changes people. . .and people change things!

Believe it or not, you and I have much power to change our world, our cities, our neighborhoods, our schools, our families, and even our own lives, through our prayers.  Don't get me wrong.  Praying does not mean we stop voting, writing letters to elected and appointed leaders, and to the newspaper editors; Blog, Tweet, testify and organize to change our world. We must do it all. So, let’s use both the power of prayer and the power to organize for change, now, and in the New Year,  to create the joy and peace we want, personally, for those around us, and for our global community.  Have a blessed Christmas and a fantastic New Year using the incredible power you possess to talk to God. He loves hearing your voice!



Viewing the 2010 Election Through Eyes of Faith: Obstacles or Opportunities?

For many years, following each major election, I connected with the late Dr. Dorothy I. Height, Civil Rights Icon and Chair Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, to get her perspective on the results.  She had an amazing way of seeing the whole forest when most people could only see the trees. After the candidates I supported lost, I would complain to Dr. Height about how the candidates with compassion for the under-served were defeated and how little we would be able to accomplish for those at the bottom economically. She would look at me and say, in a quiet but absolutely confident voice, “Dr. Skinner, you can always work with whatever is available to do what God has called you to do.” She would then remind me of struggles past where God-fearing trailblazers like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others used whatever was available to help create a better world without the benefit of technology, social networking, and other resources we now enjoy.

Dr. Height, died just six months ago at the age of 98, so following the November election, I called another highly respected Civil Rights Icon and Elder Statesperson, Dr. Otis Moss. Dr. Moss is the former Pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, the same church that Dr. King pastored before he was assassinated.  In a similar vein as Dr. Height, but in a booming voice that sounded like God speaking, Dr. Moss said, “Dr. Skinner, we have come through many stormy elections and battles in the past. We will come through this election and many more by God’s grace.” 

Remembering the wise words of two amazing sounding boards, I reflected on the election where President Barack Obama and his party were badly beaten; and where those now leading the U.S. Senate vowed to ensure the defeat in 2012 of our nation’s first African American President. I pondered how a pro-life, social justice Christian and Democrat like me could turn the obstacles of the 2010 election into opportunities for the under-served.

The first opportunity I have is to view the election through the eyes of faith in an all powerful God.  I firmly believe that absolutely nothing happens on earth without the knowledge and permission, though not necessarily the endorsement, of Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth. God is neither Democrat, Republican, nor Tea Party, and is more concerned about the character, attitude, and behavior modeled by those in the faith community than the election’s outcome.  Over the past two years, since the election of President Obama, many in the faith community became more loyal to party labels and slogans than operating in a spirit of love, mutual respect and civility. The negative, shrill, name-calling and demonizing of opponents in this election was often so offensive and poisonous that it was hard to separate those from the faith community from others who never claimed to be. 

The second opportunity I have is to embrace the love ethic of Jesus to care about every person I encounter, including in the political arena, in the same way that I care about myself. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. defined this ethic as agape love or the love that sees enemies as potential friends or colleagues. It is the kind of love that makes it totally unacceptable to demonize those from opposing political parties whose philosophies of government and core values differ from mine. Such a powerful, God kind of love leads me to pray for those who were elected on November 2^nd –  that any stony hearts against the needs of the under-served can be turned into hearts of compassion. At a minimum, it means that my dialogues and engagement with those from other political parties and points of view will be conducted with the utmost civility. 

The third opportunity I have from this election is to become better organized and a more effective messenger, as I join forces with like-minded persons in future elections to advocate for the moral and social justice issues I care about. Some of these issues include justice and economic support for the poor and vulnerable; care for the elderly; protection of all life, both human and the environment; replacement of war with peace; and protection of marriage between a man and woman as I understand God’s word, without violating the fundamental civil and human rights of those with other viewpoints.


Viewed through the eyes of faith, the 2010 election has become for me, not an occasion for fear and anxiety about the future, but an open door to turn what appeared to be insurmountable obstacles into enormous opportunities.